Pinked Memories
by Lett
Summary: Say goodbye to the Dorothy you knew. One night, after a fight with Seravi, Dorothy walks out and never returns. The gang goes in search for her but who's to say that they'll find the pink-haired freak? Currently being rewritten!
1. Say Goodbye to Dorothy

¿¿***?? A little prologue and disclaimer before we proceed.  
This is a fanfic of the original story, Akazukin Cha-cha (that's why it's on fanfiction.net), whose author is unknown to me. The characters are not mine, its his.  
For you to entirely appreaciate the story, you must know the basics of this story f.e. Seravi's two facet of self when with Dorothy (Dorothy blond-haired = Maniacal/Obsessed/In love Seravi ; Dorothy pink-haired = Ruthless, driving-Dorothy-to-insanity-through-constant-teasing-about-her-pink-hair Seravi), Cha-cha and her ring of admirers (dumb-but-strong Riya and intelligent-but-physically-weak Shiine who is also Dorothy's apprentice), and Dorothy's past (she was a very,very,very rich girl with a twin brother-turned sister because of his lust for Seravi, his/her/its name is Doris). That is all.

¿* Pinked * Memories *?

¿* Chapter One * Say Goodbye to Dorothy *?

Beautiful morning. The birds were chirping outside, the sun was shining endlessly. There was not a cloud in sight. And so the routine of the people-insects on earth continued on without pretense.

"Hmm-hm-hm-hm-hmmm! Hmm-hm-hm-hm-hmmm!" sang Dorothy as she whisked through the skies on her broom. It was an exceptionally beautiful day today, and her day would only be completed when her stomach is full.

"That's where Seravi comes in, ho-ho-ho!" she sniggered. She never tires of his delicious cooking. No particular plans on her head right now. She was just thinking of the full-course healthy meal before her... Her mouth watered in anticipation.

She arrived in an instant in front of Seravi's cottage. She knocked five times in a row that had a happy rhythm to it.-

"...." she stood outside and waited patiently for him to answer the door.

She could taste the food now...

"...." she closed her eyes.

"...."

"...." she was tapping her feet on the ground, counting the seconds.

"...." she crossed her arms on her chest.

Her stomach made a grumbling sound.

"...."

"...." a teensy vein appeared in her temple.

"...." the vein is growing, pounding in time with the heart.

"...." she starts shaking in anger, her hands tightly gripping her arms

"....!!!" she opened her burning eyes.

The animal in her was let loose again.

"I'M **_HUNGRY!_** SERAVI ARE YOU GOING TO KEEP ME OUT HERE WAITING OR _**WHAT?!!!**_" Dorothy's first yelled words for today.

¿¿* *??

They were sitting around the round table. Her Shiine and his Cha-cha and her Riya, then herself, then the crazy-genius-adult-boy with the rag doll on his side.

The table was busy as usual, Shiine quietly eating his food, Cha-cha enjoying her food calmly, Riya gulping in the food in front of him as if they were air, her sitting there and gently working her way to her delicious food, the weirdo giving her those deadly looks again...

Their eyes met.

The cottage exploded in a second.

¿**? The Next Day...

They were sitting around the round table. Her Shiine and his Cha-cha and her Riya, then herself, then the crazy-genius-adult-boy with a doll on his side.

The table was busy as usual, Shiine quietly eating his food, Cha-cha enjoying her food calmly, Riya gulping in the food in front of him as if they were air, her sitting there and gently working her way to her delicious food, the weirdo giving her those deadly looks again...

Their eyes met.

The cottage exploded in a second.

¿**? The Day After...

They were sitting around the round table. Her Shiine and his Cha-cha and her Riya, then herself, then the adult man with a doll on his side.

The table was busy as usual, Shiine quietly eating his food, Cha-cha enjoying her food calmly, Riya gulping in the food in front of him as if they were air, her sitting there and gently working her way to her delicious food, the weirdo giving her those deadly looks again...

Their eyes met.

The cottage exploded in a second.

¿**? A Week After...

¿**? A Month After...

¿**? A.......

"**_AAAAHHHHHHH, I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE!!!_**" Dorothy yelled on top of her lungs, gasping for breath afterwards.

The door opened and was detached from its hinges, letting out a very furious Dorothy. It was hard to distinguish which was redder--her face or her hair.

"You've forcing me to find a new synonym for the word _**crazy**_, **_deranged_** and **_psycho_** Seravi! **YOU'RE WORSE THAN THAT ALREADY!!!**"

"Miss Dorothy your blood pressure..." Shiine called out, running after her outside the cottage.

"I don't know how anyone can stand him Shiine, _HE'S TAKING THE DEFINITION OF INSANITY TO NEW HEIGHTS!!_"

"Oh Miss Dorothy..." Shiine said, sympathizing with her teacher.

Dorothy was going to make her broom appear but decided against it. A shadow falling on her face.

She sighed. "I'm gonna go for a long walk to figure out what went wrong with my life..." Dorothy said to Shiine. She gave one last if-looks-could-kill-Seravi's-dead-by-now look back at the cottage. Blaming him for all the unhappiness in her life right now. She then put one hand on her cheek and started walking away.

"Are we going home Teacher?" Shiine asked.

"You're a big boy, you can stay if you want to," Dorothy called to him, not turning around. Her voice sounded really tired. Who could blame her, after all the screaming that she's done?

However, Mr. Sensitive figured out that she really wanted to be alone this time.

He let out a big smile, deciding to play along. "Ok see you later Teacher!" Shiine turned around and went back inside the cottage, passing Seravi.

As always, he was with Elizabeth on his arms.

"Do you think it's safe for her to go out walking Seravi? It's already late afternoon, the sun's setting," Elizabeth asked him.

"Relax Elizabeth, she still has a few minutes before it gets dark," Seravi said with a smile on his face. "Besides, meeting other barbaric night creatures like herself once in a while will do a ton of good to her,"

"She might learn new tricks from them to use against you. I guess you're right Seravi," Elizabeth said, laughing a bit.

"Exactly Elizabeth, let her head cool off for a bit," who knows, it might come back to its blonde color...

Seravi gave one last look to Dorothy's retreating figure. She was walking towards the sun, braving its sunset rays. He would have wanted nothing more than to walk with her, however...

With that pink hair on her head, he'd be wasting his time.

¿¿* *??

"Ha! Haha!!" Shiine's laugh was a little loud and too happy. "I won against you 10 times in a row!" he said, triumphantly putting down the cards that he was holding.

Riya was on the other edge of the table, teary-eyed with Cha-cha on his side. "Cha-cha..." he said, his voice quivering...

"Ohh, that's alright Riya!! We'll beat him in the next round! " Cha-cha said in her ever cheerful tone.

"But you've been saying that for the last 9 rounds..."

Cha-cha laughed at her own foolishness. 

"Kids," Seravi interrupted in their merrymaking.

They looked at him immediately. "Supper's ready," he said.

They all let out a chorus of appreciation.

"After eating you'd better go home already alright, Shiine, Riya? It's already dark,"

"Ok!" Shiine said. Riya was already on the table munching food.

¿**? A Little Later at the Castle

Shiine arrived at the castle. He was surprised to see that there was no lights on yet.

"Miss Dorothy?" Shiine called out. She wasn't in the living room.

"Are you here Teacher?" not on the kitchen.

"Miss Dorothy?" not on the library.

"Teacher, are you asleep?" not on her room.

"Are you in here?" not on her bathroom.

_Where is she?_ Shiine thought with increasing worry.

Then it occurred to him that she may have went elsewhere after her long walk. It's only 7:00, she's going to return a little later.

He went to his room and brought out his school work, doing his assignments and reading in advance.

11:00, still no Miss Dorothy. Sleepiness was clouding his brain and he could barely keep his eyes open.

_She must have come in already and I just didn't hear it. _He thought and he decided that it would be wise not to disturb her in her room anymore, since its late already.

But before he could pick himself up from his desk to go to his bed, his head fell in front of the notebook that he was writing to and fell asleep.

¿¿* *??

_'Shiine...' _a serene female voice said.

Shiine was still sleeping. He had a hard time opening his eyes.

_'Shiine....'_ the voice repeated, ever so gentle, it was so familiar to him.

This time he succeeded in opening his eyes. _'Who's there?' _he groggily asked. His eyes focused and saw the face of his teacher.

She was smiling and looked so beautiful... She wasn't wearing her witch's hat, her hair flowed freely down her face without any clip or ribbon and it had its original blonde color. Her violet-gray eyes were gently focused on him and there was a shimmer of happiness in them that he seldom saw reflected. She was wearing a simple white dress, and she was leaning down on him while he lay there in his bed. His surroundings were blindingly bright he wondered if he really was still at his room, but there could be no mistake.

Shiine blushed, he never knew that his Miss Dorothy could be this beautiful when she has her blonde hair and was smiling upclose. _'Mi-Miss Dorothy,' _Shiine said, turning redder.

_'I've come to say goodbye...' _Dorothy slowly said, still smiling.

Shiine frowned. _'Where are you going teacher?' _Shiine asked, not fully understanding what was taking place.

Dorothy smiled more, _'To heaven,' _she said simply.

_'H-heaven? You're an angel...?'_ Shiine asked.

Angelic, perfect, that was what she was at the moment.

Dorothy closed her eyes and stepped back from his bed, as if giving a little nod.

Shiine sat up. _'When are you going?' _he asked.

_'Now...'_ Dorothy said, walking backwards towards his window.

_'Be good, Shiine, alright? Please don't forget me,...'_

It was then that he felt that something was wrong. The light pastel colors in his surrounding was beginning to get a darker shade.

_'Miss Dorothy, when are you coming back?'_ there was a building panic in his voice.

_'I'm very proud of you... Shiine... Take care of yourself... I know you can do it... You're going to be a great... great magician someday... Perhaps even take the title from Cha-cha... Rule the land as a wise and just King...'_ Dorothy's voice was starting to fade away.

_'Miss Dorothy!!!'_ Shiine yelled out, he had the feeling that this may be the last time that he would ever see her face.

Dorothy stopped, she was at the open window now. She paused and looked at the teary-eyed Shiine and gave her last smile. Then, she leaned back and fell, head first out of the window.

Shiine bolted out of his bed and went to check the window. He looked out and saw ferocious wolves at the bottom, as if waiting for their meal, but no sign of his teacher.

Suddenly, the wolves all turned their red-eyes at him. Then they started to run towards their meal--him, they were able to run up the castle walls. 

Their bared teeth and drooling saliva was the last thing that he saw.

_"Nooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!"_

Shiine jerked awake. He was gasping for air. His neck hurt from the odd position that he fell asleep on his desk.

_A nightmare..._ he said to himself.

He looked at the clock, 8:00, he was late!

He rushed packing his things in his bag and took a brief dash through the kitchen to pick up some sandwich and spread. He put his sandwich in his mouth, the breadknife and peanutbutter on his left hand, his bag was clipped between his arms and on his right hand he made his broom appear.

He coursed at neck-breaking speed through the sky, heading directly to his school.

While he was munching his food he remembered that he still did not see his teacher at the castle. Then he thought of the dream that he just had.

He shook away the thought, remembering the deadly fangs of the wolf that came at him. That dream was just a dream. Besides, Miss Dorothy could never be an angel... She'd get kicked out instantly from heaven what with her short temper and all...

She may have already gone to Seravi's house to eat because he woke up late and wasn't able to prepare food for the two of them. Yes, that's what must have happened.

Then he blushed as he remembered the up-close beautiful face of his teacher. She was already very beautiful now, even with her pink hair, but he knew that if she had blonde hair then she'd easily be the most beautiful woman on the land. No wonder Seravi was in love with her. However, being the perfectionist that he is, he won't settle for anything else but that perfect image of his blonde teacher, even if the pink haired Dorothy is still one and the same as the blonde haired Dorothy.

He closed his eyes and shook his head. He simply cannot understand genuises.

Shiine rode on and continued his thoughts, debating on who would have been more prettier Cha-cha or Miss Dorothy when she was Cha-cha's age. He pictured his teacher as he's seen in countless albums that he spied under Seravi's bed. They were all stolen shots, as if Seravi had spent all of his waking hours documenting every move that Dorothy made when she's not looking.

Then he thought of Cha-cha and her red hood, and her ascending to the throne someday...

No, he couldn't decide, ah.

By the time that he got to school, his head was still high up in the clouds, dreaming.

¿¿*!*??

¿¿***?? Liked it? This is fic is a Christmas gift for Emmalyn, and all my other friends who like Akazukin Cha-cha. I am going to continue this fic but only on review basis. Meaning that my number of reviews on this fic should double before I post an update. Say for example, I'm going on my Christmas break so the next time that I'll check up on this would be on January 7, 2003, or earlier. Say by that time I saw 5 reviews, then I'm going to wait for the reviews to reach 10 before I post the next chapter, and then, 20 before chapter 3, and so on... Don't worry, I may only have less than 10 chapters, because every chapter is jam-packed like this one. And yes, I've already written them down, they only need editing. Post questions, suggestions, flames, whatever it is that you want and is allowed by the site.


	2. Seravi's Prayer

¿* Pinked * Memories *?

¿* Chapter Two * Seravi's Prayer *?

¿**? Early morning, in Seravi's house...

Seravi was sitting in his usual spot at the table quietly sipping his tea. Cha-cha and Riya had just departed for school.

"You're so deep in thought Seravi," Elizabeth called out to him from atop the table where she was sitting.

Seravi opened her eyes and put down his cup. "I don't know Elizabeth, something feels wrong..."

"Was it connected to what happened to you yesterday?" she asked him.

¿**? flashback, yesterday before supper

He had just finished cooking the meal for the children when--

_**'SERAVI!!!!!' **_

He heard a scream inside his mind. He went to the children immediately, thinking it might be one of them. But when he looked in on them he saw that they were sitting around the table happily making noises, but no trouble whatsoever.

He turned to the window outside. The sun has already set for a while now, darkness once again covered the land.

He turned back to the children and called them to their meal then.

"I just...I don't know Elizabeth... something feels wrong... very, very wrong..."

¿¿* *??

¿**? Later that day

Seravi's continuing train of thought was broken when Cha-cha came in through the door and greeted him happily, and as usual, she was followed by her two friends.

The two boys behind her were having a conversation and debating as to what they should play for that afternoon.

Shiine came in and looked around the cottage, as if looking for someone. He frowned and was about to say something when Cha-cha suddenly burst out. "I know! Let's play ball!"

"Ball!!! Yeah!!" Riya said and turned into a little white wolf.

The two went out immediately, leaving Shiine behind.

"Ah! Cha-cha! Wait for me!!" Shiine called out as he dashed through the door after them.

A smile crossed Seravi's lips. Everything looks to be in order, so what was this feeling that had been bothering him all day?

He was to find out... soon enough.

It was already early evening, they had just finished their meal. The day had gone by without presenting the trouble that Seravi alone was feeling.

Shiine and Riya was about to leave when Shiine remembered to ask Seravi the question that he was about to ask earlier that day.

"Mister Seravi? Has my teacher been here?" he asked casually.

"Dorothy? Hmm, now that I think about it, not yet..." he said.

"Oh... I see..." Shiine frowned, beginning to wander in deep thought.

"Don't worry Shiine," Elizabeth piped in. "She's probably at the castle already waiting for you, half-insane with hunger,"

Seravi laughed for the first time that day. "You're probably right Elizabeth! You're going to get in trouble if you don't go home soon," he said referring to Shiine.

"Alright, goodnight Cha-cha! Goodnight Mister Seravi, and to you too Elizabeth, Goodnight doggie!!"

Shiine rode away in his broom for home with a big lump on his head.

¿¿* *??

¿**? Still later that night...

Seravi was already in his pajamas and was going around his cottage turning off lights. He was yawning every now and was very sleepy already...

"See Seravi?" Elizabeth reminded him. "Nothing went wrong with this day... you worry too much..."

Seravi entered the room that he shared with Cha-cha and placed Elizabeth on his desk beside his bed.

"You're right Elizabeth..." Seravi said, tucking himself in. "I worried over nothing..."

He had just closed his eyes when frantic pounding on the door opened them again.

¿¿* *??

"_MISTER SERAVI!!!!_" Shiine pounded on his cottage door. Tears blurring his vision and running down his cheeks. More kept coming.

"**MISTER SERAVII!!!!**" he called out again, pounding his door with all of his might, he was crying freely and he didn't even mind the mucus flowing down his nasal cavity.

The door opened and showed a very furious Seravi holding a still-smiling Elizabeth.

"Do...you...know...what...time...it...is...?" Seravi hissed to him, grumpy because of not being able to even get a wink.

But Shiine didn't mind this. He hugged Seravi's legs and started crying more.

This snapped Seravi out from his anger. "What's the matter Shiine?" Then it hit him. _Dorothy_.

"What happened Shiine?!" Seravi asked him, kneeling on the floor to level with him.

"It's...m....ssss....do...do....doo...waaaaahhhhh!!" he cried once again.

"Get hold of yourself Shiine and tell me what happened!" Seravi scolded him, a tone rising in his voice, he was beginning to grow more nervous than him.

"I'm so-..sorry... sniff sniff. Teacher Dorothy didn't come home yesterday... and today... she's gone...waaaaaahhh!!!" and sniffed like crazy.

"I came back... and she still wasn't there... I waited for her... and never showed up... she never came back from her walk!! She---she---"

It was as if it came to Seravi all at once.   
The scream that he heard...   
That heavy feeling in his stomach... so it was Dorothy's absence that bothered him all along...   
He hadn't noticed. And now, it may already be too late... She... she might be...

"No!!" Seravi cried outloud. Without a moment to waste, he dashed back into the cottage and went to his basement, leaving Shiine to crawl inside, still sniveling and wiping his tears.

"What's going on?" came the sleepy voice of Cha-cha, emerging from the shadows.

"Cha-cha?" Shiine asked in his still quivering voice. "I-it's my teacher... she's been gone for 2 days and I hadn't noticed till now..."

"Huh?! What happened to Miss Dorothy?!" she asked, snapping awake.

Seravi came back to the room, with a crystal ball in hand.

"Teacher Seravi!" Cha-cha said in her loud voice, "What are you going to do?!"

"Be quiet!" Seravi hissed to the both of them. Shiine stopped his sniveling and froze.

He placed his two hands atop the crystal and commanded to it, "Show me my pink-haired Dorothy!" he bellowed.

The crystal ball glowed and blinked for a moment, but still remained clouded and unyielding.

"Where is that pink-haired witch?!" he cried out again, his voice now more desperate than ever.

Still the crystal ball remained cloudy.

".........."

"........................"

"No..." Seravi stepped back from the crystal ball, as if frightened by what it had revealed.

"No..." he said once again, he began shaking his head.

"What's happening?" Cha-cha asked Shiine.

Shiine was sobbing quietly, but somehow managed to tell Cha-cha. "W-when the crystal ball doesn't show anything... that means... that means... the person is..." he buried his head in his arms. "I k-knew it... that dream... when she said goodbye to me..." he stopped and started crying once again... "Ohh, it's all my fault... I hadn't noticed till now... she's.... she's...."

"What Shiine?! Tell me!" Cha-cha pleaded, raising her hands and closing her fists.

Seravi's vision clouded involuntarily. He looked around the room and saw Elizabeth where he had dropped her, tangled in an odd position on the floor near the door.  
In his mind's eye, Elizabeth became her... golden hair becoming pink and and now she was lying on the floor, her neck twisted at an odd position, cold, lifeless...

Shiine raised his head and looked at Cha-cha, braving himself to go on, "I-it means, it means the person is... my teacher is..."

"No! She can't be!!" Seravi cried out. He leaned back into the wall for support, his eyes were wide with denial. "No! No! No!"

"Teacher Seravi...?" Cha-cha asked, her voice quivering in fright.

Seravi staggered towards the door. His energy draining. He opened the door and started out towards the night.

"Teacher where are you going?!" Cha-cha asked, running after him, she grabbed the edges of his pajamas and started pulling him to get his attention.

Seravi paused for a moment, tears making its way down through his cheeks. Then he turned to look at her, he now had a softer look in his eyes.

"That's right, I'm still in my pajamas. Cha-cha, please let me go," he requested. 

Cha-cha slowly released the garments of his pajamas.

He snapped his fingers and they turned into his white robe uniform.

"I'm going to search for her now, please go back inside the cottage,"

"At this hour of the night?! Teacher, why can't you wait until-"

"She may be in danger... I'll need to go to her right away... I can't waste anytime--" Poof! his broom appeared and he was already atop it.

"It's late, sleep and don't wait for me. Don't come after me either, I'll be alright..." Seravi continued, giving them his instructions.

"But Teacher!! Teacher, don't go!!" Cha-cha protested, afraid to be left alone in the middle of the night.

Seravi rose, higher and higher onto the night sky.

"**_Teacher!!_**" Cha-cha yelled after him, the birds sleeping in the forest awoke.

He was slashing through the darkness, flying as fast as his broom could take him, he was heading there... wherever... towards where his Dorothy was.

And to the night air, Seravi silently bid his prayer...

_Dear Dorothy..._ he thought. 

The image of the young blonde haired Dorothy he so cherished was replaced by the pink-haired one.

_The single woman in my heart... _

He thought about the times when they fought over such petty things, and almost killed each other...

_Wait for me..._

As long as she was alive, there was still hope for her to return her hair's original color... so he just chose to wait for that time to come, but...

_Please... don't let me be too late..._

If he was made to choose between having anyone else and the current pink freak...  
.........  
..............   
Of course he'd still choose his Dorothy...  
_(He can always dye her hair afterwards...)_

_I'm coming soon... Please... hold on... Let me find you..._

He loved her. It could never change.

_Please let me find you..._

_I promise... I'll never tease you about your hair again..._

_Just be alright..._

_Please... be alright..._

¿¿*!*??

¿¿***?? Ok, I checked last DEC 29 and saw 3 posts. I'm not going to post chapter 3 until I get 6 posts ok? I'm glad about the response of the readers out there, I really enjoyed writing this story, I'm glad that you like the story too.


	3. The Violet Message

Warning! This is a very, very, long chapter. If you have something important to do, I suggest you do before reading this... It won't go anywhere for a while anyway.

¿* Pinked * Memories *?

¿* Chapter Three * The Violet Message *?

Dawn has broken. 

The white gentle rays made its way to the land, the darkness was but a memory of last night...

Of last night.

Cha-cha's eyes opened to the light that was now smiling in her face.

She turned to her right and saw the fresh sun ascending to its throne, a smile formed on her lips. She got up and was about to greet her Teacher when she realized that her teacher's bed was empty.

With a jolt she remembered what had happened last night... "Ohh no!! I fell asleep!!!" she said and jumped out of her bed. She ran out of her bedroom and looked for Shiine.

She saw him almost instantly, sprawled on the seat in the living room, sleeping peacefully with his mouth open..

Cha-cha came closer, and saw him clutching a picture of his teacher in his arms, his grip on it was tight.

"Shiine..." Cha-cha thought. So he was finally able to sleep... the night before, they had talked about whether to sleep or not, Shiine had suggested that Cha-cha go to sleep, for she'll need the energy in the morning, he'll stay awake to wait for Seravi's return, she didn't want to agree to his terms however, he was firm. Here was a side of Shiine that she never knew. He made her go to the bedroom and lie on her bed. She couldn't speak against him longer, for she knew that the situation must be hard on him and resisting would do no good, it would only pain him more. So she sort of agreed and went to the bedroom, however she vowed not to sleep, and wait for her teacher while pretending to be sleeping.

She was successful in the first few seconds that she lay on her bed, however, she didn't last very long. She was off to dreamland in less than a minute. A sweatdrop ran down her head when she remembered it.

_Unknown to her, while she was sleeping, Shiine came in to check up on her a while later, and when he found that she was sound asleep, he was able to relax more. He couldn't even sit still when Cha-cha left, and whenever he tried to sit down, he'd end up crying. After seeing Cha-cha's sleeping form, he was able to ease his mind a bit and dozed off to sleep after sitting down. _

As Cha-cha looked on at him, a frown formed on his forehead.

"Oh Shiine..." Cha-cha said while looking at him asleep, lying there. Even in his dreams he must still be thinking about his teacher. "Miss Dorothy... where are you?" she asked as she looked out the window.

"Please, come back soon..."

¿¿* *??

He was running, running hard and breathless... His knew that his body would not be able to keep it up forever, somehow though, the fatigue that he had anticipated never came. So he just kept on running.

He was running towards his teacher.

She was in front of him, he knew this much. But she could easily disappear among the countless others that were there walking with her. Somehow in his eyes, she stood out from the rest, so he was able to follow her.

He paid no attention to the others that he passed, for they seemed not to exist, he only knew that he had better get to his teacher, and he had better do it fast.

"MISS DOROTHY!!!!" he screamed as loudly as he could.

It fell on deaf ears. He continued running.

"_MISS DOROTHY!!!!_" he shouted once again. No use.

He figured, he would just save his energy and focus it all on running, so as to get to her, before its too late.

After seemingly an eternity of running, he was finally gaining on her.

They were coming nearer and nearer towards a white door too, but this escaped from his attention.

"Miss Dorothy!" he reached her as she was almost through that great big white door. Without thinking anymore, he flung all of himself towards her and embraced whatever he could grab.

The light grew and went all around him.

He opened his eyes.

He saw a place so familiar to him, he focused his eyes more and it dawned on his groggy head this place looked like the living room of Seravi's cottage.

Then he grew aware that someone was in his arms. He looked a little sideways to see the back side of the red hood that his beloved Cha-cha wore... 

A tint of crimson ran across his cheek, a dreamy expression clouded his eyes.

_If this is a dream, never let me wake up..._

He continued holding her in his arms, he closed his eyes and still pretended to be sleeping.

Cha-cha was entirely red and was paralyzed, unable to figure out what to do. She thought of throwing him against the wall, but she also thought that he might be sleepwalking and if so that she should gently remove his arms from her.

She was about to lift her hands to pull Shiine away from her when the door suddenly opened and was thrown hard against the wall. In came Riya with a cheerful **"GOODMORNING!"**

He looked and saw Shiine with such an intimate position with Cha-cha.

In a second, Shiine made an authentic body mark on the wall.

"Cha-cha! What has he done to you?!" Riya asked, turning Cha-cha's red face to and fro, looking for scratches. "I'd pound him for you, just give me the signal!" he said.

Shiine meanwhile, slowly slid from his dent on the wall and gave a low moaning sound when he fell to the ground.

Cha-cha just laughed. "That's alright Riya," she said in her most cheerful tone. "I think he did it involuntarily since he was still sleeping..."

"Lucky guy," Riya murmured.

"Of course!" Shiine said, dancing a Japanese dance.

Their eyes met and they were behaved in a second.

"What are you doing here at such an early hour Riya?" Shiine asked in sarcastic tone. "School won't start for more than an hour more..." he said.

Riya turned red. He opened his mouth to answer but his stomach made a grumbling sound.

Cha-cha seconded the prelude. Her stomach made a loud grumbling noise too. She laughed. "That's right, we have to eat breakfast..." she said.

"Where's the food?" Riya asked, sniffing around for its aroma. "Hasn't Seravi cooked yet?"

Shiine and Cha-cha looked at each other. A shadow fell on both of their faces.

"Wha--what happened?!" Riya asked them both.

"Teacher Seravi left last night, he hasn't come back yet..." Cha-cha said.

"What?! There's no food?!?!" Riya asked and grew desperate.

Shiine punched his head and he fell down the ground, "Stop worrying about your stomach for a moment and listen to what we have to say. This is serious!"

"You mean it involves food?" Riya asked in all innocence.

"Uhh..." Cha-cha said in despair. "You see, Miss Dorothy's missing, and Teacher Seravi went out alone last night to look for her..."

"What?! No grown-ups?" Riya said. Then he turned to Shiine, "So that's why you were so bold in making a pass at Cha-cha!"

Shiine turned deep red. "I DIDN'T DO IT ON PURPOSE! I THOUGHT I WAS GRABBING MY TEACHER!!!!" he said, shouting at Riya.

"Right..." he coolly replied.

Then Shiine suddenly fell quiet. He remembered the situation that he was in now more than ever. His mood had risen for a moment, for he had awaken with Cha-cha in his arms... but now, he remembered the position that he was in... His teacher might be...

"Please stop it, you guys," Cha-cha said. "Don't give him any more rough time Riya, Shiine has been through a lot already..." she pleaded with him.

Shiine went to a corner as if he heard nothing and sulked there. He didn't want to do anything, even listen to them because he could already feel his tears coming up again.

"But what about me? Aren't I in terrible suffering already? There's no food, there's no grown-up to cook. All my brother's ate my breakfast for me... I can't go to school on an empty stomach!!" Riya said, throwing himself at the floor in front of Cha-cha, crying now too, because of his hunger.

"Oh, I know how you feel Riya," Cha-cha said. "I know I'll magic a food for us!"

Sweatdrop appeared in Riya's head. Shiine was still in one corner, facing the other way.

"Breakfast for three appear!" Cha-cha called out.

A beautiful set of nutritious breakfast for three appeared. And for a moment they were fooled, but Riya, jumping to to dig in, hit his head on the glass of the television where a cooking show was on.

"Oh no, not again!" Cha-cha said.

She was just about to try when Riya stopped her in midair just when she was just about to cast a spell. "Wait a minute Cha-cha! Why don't we let Shiine cook?!", Riya suggested, fearing for more tragedies, his brain worked for a moment.

"....." Shiine was still in his trance.

"Hey Shiine! Snap out of it!" Riya said, giving him a punch on the head. "It won't do good being like that everyday! We have to eat! You have to cook for us!"

Shiine recoiled and shouted as loudly as he could to Riya "Stop hitting me in the head!! I'm in enough pain already!!".

"Oh Shiine, we're really sorry," Cha-cha cut in. "But don't you think that we could think better after we've had our stomach's filled?"

"Ohh Cha-cha," Shiine said, tears edging in his eyes. "If it's for you, alright I'll cook. Even if we're faced with such a tragedy, I'll do it for you... after all... at least... at least... I've learned something from my teacher...." Shiine turned away, his tears freely flowing down his face.

Riya punched him on the head again and said "Snap out of it,".

"Please stop it Riya," Cha-cha pleaded with him. "It's no joke what Shiine's going through. Miss Dorothy may never return..."

"Honestly Cha-cha, I'm not worried a bit. I mean, Dorothy's not a normal woman. There's no other woman who's more barbaric than her (_in his mind wa_s _ an image of Dorothy dressed like an Amazon woma_n). And besides, you said that Seravi's out looking for her, so you shouldn't worry, I mean, he may be a nutcase and all that (_in his mind, another image, Seravi laughing like a madman, in his shoulder is Elizabeth, he's looking at a child image of Dorothy_), but if there's someone who could find her wherever she is, it's him."

Shiine heard all of this and began to wipe his tears. "I suppose you're right Riya..." he said. "Alright, I'm off to cook now..." he said, taking a step towards the kitchen.

Cha-cha cheered behind him and they both followed him to the kitchen.

Shiine then began looking for food to cook. To his dismay, he found the kitchen empty.

The refrigerator only contained a pitcher of water.

"No food?!" Riya cried out, he was losing his logic due to his hunger, well it wasn't like he ever had one in the first place.

"Ohh no... Teacher Seravi forgot to shop yesterday, he told me he was going to shop today but... Ohh noo... there's no food..." Cha-cha started to panic.

Shiine's stomach started to growl as well.

"There's no food?!?!" Riya repeated, his eyes wide with disbelief.

After a moment of stunned silence, all of them fell on the floor and started to bawl like crazy.

_There's no Dorothy  
There's no Seravi  
THERE'S NO FOOD!  
The world is coming to an end!!_

Shiine got up and wiped his tears. "We should all go to school guys, it's almost time, we'll be late if we don't go now," he said, putting up a brave act.

"I don't want to go to school, I'm too weak and hungry," Riya said, his statement sounded perfectly reasonable in his ears.

Cha-cha thought for a while then agreed with Shiine. "Right you guys, we shouldn't miss school," she got up and turned to the dizzy Riya. "At least we'll be able to have lunch there!" she said.

At the mention of food Riya immediately got up and agreed. "You're right, Cha-cha you're so smart!" He then trod off ahead of them.

"Are you coming or what?!" he called out from beyond the cottage door.

¿¿* *??

¿**? Later in school

Mr. Rascal was teaching as usual, busy reading something from the book.

In their seats, the trio was in different positions where hunger was the main concern.

Shiine had his head on the desk, Suuzu was fanning him.

Riya was sprawled backwards on his seat, mouth open as if expecting food to just fall into his face.

Cha-cha's head was moving in time with her swirling eyes.

His eyes narrowed and gleamed and he immediately began whipping around in the classroom, "Cha-cha, Shiine, Riya!!! What are you doing, not paying attention to what I'm saying in front?!" he said, and he jumped into their table and looked at all three of them.

"You don't look so good," he said upon close examination of their dizzy-from-hunger faces. He settled at Cha-cha's side.

"That's be..cause... we didn't... have... breakfast.... teacher..." Cha-cha answered as politely as she could under the circumstances that she was in.

Mr. Rascal stepped down from the table and looked at her. "Why's that? Didn't Seravi cook breakfast for you?!" he asked.

"He wasn't there... he... went out.... last night.... and... hasn't return...e...d.... yet...." Cha-cha continued. 

After Cha-cha whispered the last few words of her sentence, Yakku threw a fit as well.

"What do you mean Prince Seravi didn't come back last night?!?!?!?!!?!?" she pulled Cha-cha up straight to level with her. "What have you done to him, huh Cha-cha!!!!!" she said as she slapped both of her cheeks to make her straighten up.

Shiine made an effort to continue Cha-cha's story. "My teacher Dorothy was missing,... this is the third day now see,... and... Teacher Seravi went out.... to look for her last night and... hasn't returned yet..." he said, trying to snap himself out of his fatigue as well.

"What?! This is terrible, you mean two of my former students are missing?!" it was Principal Urara who spoke. She had snuck up from behind Mr. Rascal and had heard the whole thing.

"Uh-huh," the three of them said in unison. Nodding.

"Oh, we must do something about it," she said. "Cancel all classes! We must use all the students and the faculty to look for them all day!" she declared. All the other students rejoiced as to the class being canceled.

"Alright class! We'll search in groups! Pick a partner and stick to it!" Mr. Rascal said.

"But Principal, what about lunch?!" Riya asked, snapping out of his reverie.

"We'll have it when we come back..."

Riya, Cha-cha and Shiine all slumped to the floor.

¿¿* *??

¿**? A little while later

They were all in the forest of the kingdom, all searching.

Riya was leading the group in his white wolf form. He was closely followed by Cha-cha and Shiine.

"Can you smell anything yet Riya?" Cha-cha asked him.

"Where---where's my Riya!!" Marin piped in, appearing out of nowhere. "Ohh, my darling Riya, if you were the one who was lost I'd spend all my waking hours of the rest of my life looking for you! Ohh, my Darling----" then she was pushed to the side by Yakku, coming out from the bushes.

"**WHERE'S MY PRINCE SERAVI?!?!?!**" Yakku growled like a dinosaur. "This is all your fault Cha-cha! I couldn't continue interrogating you when the teacher's were here, but now that we're alone, where did you hide him you witch?! _You want to keep him all to yourself!!!!!!!!_"

Suuzu was following closely and was restraining the furious Yakku. "Yakku, please, I don't think Cha-cha or anyone can hide Seravi..."

Sweatdrop ran down Cha-cha's face.

"I can smell someone, but its too faint to figure out... Seravi's been busy last night, I can smell him all over..." he said.

"Huh, so my teacher's here?!" Cha-cha asked.

"Where's Seravi? _Whe-he-heerre's Prince Seravi?!?!_" Yakku was still in her state of confusion.

"No, I don't think so, the scent's too weak, I'm not sure if he's still here..." then he acted up. "Wait a minute..." he raised his head and started sniffing really loudly. "I can smell Dorothy!" he said then started to run off.

Cha-cha and the gang followed immediately. Cutting through the deer path.

Then suddenly, they found Riya, growling at someone... or something... He was in a stance as if preparing to attack someone. 

"What's the matter Riya?" Cha-cha asked.

"Stay back Cha-cha..." Riya warned. "There's something there... Dorothy's just beyond those bushes!"

"Huh, my teacher!" Shiine said, immediately taking a step forward.

Suddenly, in less than a second, something rapidly came out of the bush and dove for Shiine! His sight rapidly was altered, from the bush that we was going to go through to the clear blue skies that he could see very well now, and there it came to his view... The wolf from his dreams. The red eyes, the hot breath which smelled of blood from the meal it recently ate, the warm saliva that dropped on his robes... the violet piece of clothing that was caught in between it's bared teeth...

_Violet piece of cloth...  
Torn from a violet dress...  
The violet dress that his teacher often wore!!_

Shiine realized this... and fainted in a second.

¿¿*!*??

¿¿***?? You will, I hope forgive me for the delay... well... I had little time to tend to this as the Midterms and papers and all the other frightening exams are piling up... _ohh_... Anyway, next chapter comes after the 12th post ok? This time I won't fail! I'm sorry but I won't be able to finish this story this month... next month maybe... Thank you for all the compliments! I tried to stay as true to the story as possible (except the whole sequence of events). By the way, this takes place before the wedding... I know its timing is off, but hey! Who says a good story has to be on time?! :P 


	4. Dorothy's Funeral

¿* Pinked * Memories *?

¿* Chapter Four * Dorothy's Funeral *?

Shiine woke up to the smell of something that appalled his senses. He was immediately pulled back to the land of the living.

He jerked awake.

His eyes focused to see Cha-cha and the others all huddled around him, looking at him with concern.

(Riya was nowhere to be found)

Then he turned to look at the one who was kneeling beside him. It was Seravi!

"Are you alright now?" Seravi gently asked.

He opened his mouth to speak but no words came out. He was much too shocked by what he had seen. 

Seravi has changed. He has _greatly_ changed. He seemed to have aged 10 years overnight. His eyes showed the signs of no sleep. There was a change in the way that he spoke to others. And his hair and his robe was disheveled, he hadn't even bothered to tidy himself up.

He stood up and gave Shiine room to get himself up.

Then Shiine remembered his last thought before he fainted. He looked around for the wolf that had almost killed him.

"Mr. Seravi..." he inaudibly started, planning to tell him his discovery. Tears welled up in his eyes.

"What are you doing here children?" Seravi asked, turning to the others. 

"We're looking for Miss Dorothy too teacher!" Cha-cha answered.

(Shiine, looked away and saw the bushes that he had tried to go to earlier, he then crawled and passed the bushes, unnoticed)

"Don't listen to her Prince Seravi, we were out here looking for you!" Yakku said, pushing Cha-cha away to be by Seravi's side. "I was so, so worried, please don't do that to me anymore! You don't look so good, what have you been doing? You're pushing yourself too hard... Please just forget all of this and let's go home my Prince... I'll take care of you..." Yakku said, blushing furiously while she was pulling his robe towards her direction.

"That's very sweet of you Yakku, however I'm not finished yet... I haven't found--"

"_SERAVI!_" came Riya's voice. It was faint, as if it had just been an echo passed by the wind to his ears.

Seravi snapped immediately and went to the direction of the voice.

He jumped through the bush, and the first thing that he noticed were the broken little pieces of stick that were scattered in front of him.

It was a thin stick with a white stalk, it was broken in several places, it's pieces formed a trail to be followed.

It leads up...

Seravi walked cautiously, following the trail of debris which had ended on a large rock up ahead. There was an opening around that large rock. The path to it ended on one side with a tall, steep cliff and a fall to the river below.

The sound of the river could barely be heard, signifying a very high drop should he make a mistake. However there was a sound which blocked out all the rest.

It was his heart beating wildly, as if he knew what he was going to find uphill.

He didn't even hear it when Cha-cha called him to ask what was wrong.

He slowly followed the trail of the broken sticks to the large rock where the narrow path led up to. As he went closer to the rock, he began to see colors on the rock. Colors that should not be there.

On the sides of the rock, where the view was unobstructed. He could see the edge of the cliff clearly now, and beyond that the ocean.

He began to hear a soft crying sound...

_**"SERAVI!!!!"**_

The scream came back to him as stood face to face with the forbidding rock that measured up to his waists. He can truly see the colors now, the colors that had stained the rock... the red...blood...stains....

Seravi stood there, shocked. It was as if all his world had collapsed before him. He fell down on his knees. 

He now knew what the sticks were... they, as he had seen a thousand times were the ones that _she_ held in her hands whenever _she_ made magic....

And that now, as his tears freely flowed down his cheek and his vision clouded until he could see no more, he realized that he was standing before the grave of his love.

_On the other side of the rock. Shiine was crying softly, as was Riya, who was beside him, unable to look at him.  
Shiine tightly held a dirty piece of bloodstained dark purple shoe in his arms.  
Less than a foot in front of him, were the tattered pieces of cloth that was once his teacher's hat and clothing..._

¿¿* *??

Seravi woke up. It seemed that he has awakened from a long, long sleep. His muscles ached from not moving.

Something in his brain was telling him something but he couldn't remember anything. It must have been a very bad dream that he wants to forget, so pushing the thought away from his head, he got up from his bed.

It was a normal day. He glanced at his night table to see Elizabeth sitting there, still smiling.

He had planned to go to the kitchen to start cooking meals when he saw Cha-cha already up at this hour, sitting on the steps of the front door. He walked up to her and leaned down to speak to her.

He saw the long face that she wore. "What's the matter Cha-cha? Why are you so grumpy, so early, at such a beautiful day?" Seravi asked his student. 

Cha-cha looked up to see him standing there quietly. She opened her mouth to speak but closed it again, hesitating. Then she faced him and said "Are you alright now Teacher?" a look of worry crossing her face.

"Huh? Of course I'm alright," He answered with a smile.

"That's good. But poor Shiine..." Cha-cha said, returning to her depression.

Seravi frowned. "What's the matter with Shiine? Did Dorothy kick her out of the castle because he failed to cook food for her?" he asked.

"Why Teacher!_ How could you be so mean? _Have you forgotten?! Miss Dorothy's **dead**!"

The last words echoed throughout him. It was as if he was slapped back to reality.

"_NO!_" Seravi cried out. He immediately rushed to the basement of his cottage. He saw the crystal ball lying on top of the table there where Cha-cha had put it back.

"Where are you?!" he said frantically to the crystal ball with a wave of his hand. 

"Where are you Dorothy?! _Dorothy!!!_ **_DOROTHY!!!!_**" he said, getting more desperate by the second.

The crystal ball gleamed, and, as if to mock him, showed a fuzzy image of the blonde haired Dorothy, but only for a moment. She had her eyes closed and had a very peaceful expression on her face. And then the crystal ball began to crack and broke into a million pieces.

Along with the crystal ball, his heart also shattered...

"**NO!!**" he screamed. He still refused to believe.

He goes to the shelf and searched for anything--_anything _that might help him.

"She's not dead, she's not dead, she's not dead... _she's not!!_" he said as he clumsily browsed through the items, bottle per bottle, shelf per shelf. Some of the potions fell on the floor and broke, but he didn't even mind. After a while he started throwing all of the potions to the floor, not even looking at them anymore, releasing his anger.

"_She's not dead..._!!! How can she be dead?" a glassy look started to take over his eyes. He stopped throwing the potions on the floor. On the shelf there was a stashed picture of when they were young, the two of them. Doris was the one who had taken the picture. Dorothy was smiling sweetly to the camera, and he was looking at her, enchanted by her smile. A distant smile formed on his lips.

"T-teacher...?" Cha-cha asked, a tone of fear in her voice. She had just now gone down the ladder. She came when she heard the noises made by glass being broken.

"You... you promised to marry me... How could you die when you promised that you'd marry me...?" Seravi said, talking to the picture of his beloved Dorothy. 

"Oh Teacher..." Cha-cha said, tears brimming in her eyes.

The look in Seravi's eyes were instantly replaced by anger. "**LIAR!!** You _liar!!!!_ Come back and fulfill your promise!!!" tears were now flowing freely down his cheek. It stained his robe. "_Come back...._" his voice broke.

He fell to his knees,... and was left unanswered...

¿¿* *??

Shiine stood on the edge of a cliff. 

The castle was full of memories of his late teacher, so he ran away from it and found himself heading to the place where she had spent her last moments.

The wind was blowing against his skin. It was a chilly wind full of vengeance, never ceasing to remind him that...

He hugged his robe closer to his body.

He looked to the estuary below where the river met the sea, there was a very steep fall, and there were several rocks that looked up to him from there. They looked like deceitful arms, who promised to catch him should he fall.

He wondered if this were where his Teacher had fallen to her death, and if those arms had indeed caught her.

A tear fell down his cheek. He immediately wiped it away.

He promised not to cry after all...

It took him this long, to finally gather his strength to visit where his teacher had died. Time passed slowly so the wait had seemed like an eternity,... But only two weeks had passed since then, since they were here...

He stopped looking down to the rocks below and just looked at the ocean.

The ocean that had carried his Teacher's body somewhere, maybe to heaven...

And so it didn't matter even if they hadn't found his teacher's body, even after searching for so, so long and with such a wide network of volunteers... For all that they know it could very well be on the other end of the ocean already...

Wherever it was that his teacher was in now,... He only knew that she was far, far away from him.

_"Be good alright Shiine?"_

He remembered the words that his teacher had said to him.

_Yes teacher... of course..._

_"Please don't forget me..."_

_Never teacher. Never. I will never forget you... Please... wherever you are, please give me some strength...   
Watch over me..._

He remembered the last smile that she gave to him.

Through it, he was somehow able to smile. Smile with the wind blowing against his face.

And finally he was able to say goodbye, to a tragic chapter in his life.

Then, at the edge of his eye he saw something caught at one of the roots of the plant at the edge of the cliff. He looked closer to see the round image of a star that used to hang at the end of his teacher's hat. 

He kneeled down to try to get it.

It seemed to be out of his reach, but he adjusted his body's position and tried again, his left hand was clutching a rock for anchor, while his right was reaching for the small memento that his teacher had left.

After a few seconds of stretching, his fingers were finally able to close upon the small round cloth.

Then, suddenly, the rock that he was holding on to gave a crack and was dismantled from the ground it was rooted on. He gave a shriek and anticipated the fall down to the ocean below when he became aware of the hold that saved him from the danger and had pulled him back to the safe ground.

Shiine looked up to see Riya standing there, looking at him uncertainly, not knowing whether to smile or to get angry at him for almost falling.

"You scared me Shiine, I thought you wanted to jump?" he said after a while.

"Did you think that I would want to commit suicide falling face first?" Shiine said sarcastically, somehow angry at him for suggesting such a stupid thing. "What were you doing here anyway?"

"What else? I followed you. I came here and saw you trying to commit suicide, and for a moment I thought about not stopping you at all, so that I could have Cha-cha all to myself but..." while he was speaking, he had half of his eyes closed and was not looking directly at Shiine. "It would be such an easy life without you as a competition," he finished finally. 

Their expressions eased after a while.

Shiine relaxed and said "Thank you Riya...".

Riya scratched his head and nodded. "Let's go to Cha-cha..." he suggested.

Shiine looked at him again, he had a new look in his eyes. "Alright Riya, lead the way..."

¿¿* *??

They arrived in Seravi's cottage after a while of walking. Cha-cha was the one who answered the door. She gave a weak smile to the two boys.

"Who has come to visit my house?!" came Yakku's voice from inside the cottage.

Riya opened the door widely and then was immediately greeted by hugs and kisses by Marin.

"Ohhh, my darling Riya! You're alright!! Where have you been my darling? How can you be so cruel as to let your wife wait out here while you go out hunting for our food? Why, I'll give you as many food as you want, my darling, just promise that you won't leave me anymore... hu hu huu..." Marin exclaimed as she hugged the air out of Riya. Riya transformed into a wolf and was immediately dropped to the floor.

"Shiine, are you alright now?" Suuzu timidly asked Shiine.

Shiine turned to her and smiled a bit. "Yes I'm fine Suuzu," he answered.

"I see your friends are all complete Cha-cha..." came a weak voice from further inside the house.

They all turned to see Seravi standing on the hallway, almost back to his old self.

"Prince Seravi! Why did you get up? You shouldn't be up yet! Not after what happened a while ago when I wasn't here..." she gave killer looks to Cha-cha, as if blaming her for what happened. "Please my Prince, go back and rest..." Yakku said in all sincerity.

"Yakku, I'm fine already. I think... I have to face reality now... she's... Dorothy's...." he paused. A glassy look began to cloud his eyes again. But he shook his head immediately and looked at them. "_Dead..._" he finished the sentence. He swallowed down the bitterness that he was beginning to taste.

Shiine looked down on the floor. Cha-cha winced. Riya was in Cha-cha's arms and was teary-eyed at seeing Seravi like that. Marin was busy looking for Riya. Suuzu was sadly looking at Seravi and was at Shiine's side, while Yakku was actually suppresing a happy smirk on her face, trying to look sympathetic to Seravi's suffering.

"It's been two weeks now... that's long enough... I must... let her go... Let her rest..." he paused once again and blinked away the tears.

"So, tomorrow, let us return her to where she should be... Tomorrow, will be her funeral..."

¿¿* *??

The next day, the people were all lined up and was wearing black in town. There were all sorts of people, even the Royal family was marching out on the streets. They were honoring the memory of the beloved woman who had come and brought all sorts of memories on their lives.

Some friends in front were the one who were carrying the rosewood coffin. Atop the coffin were all sorts of flowers, not really arranged. The persons that they had passed threw flowers on the wood, and most of them were retained and formed that clump of flowers. At the middle of it, still in sight, but barely, was a simple picture of Dorothy, smiling sweetly. By the way that it looked, she seemed so happy being surrounded by the flowers as she has now.

The first person immediately following after that was Seravi.

He held his head up, but his eyes were cast down. He had Elizabeth in his arms, as always, but she has been dressed black and didn't look so happy anymore.

No one spoke the entire time. They were either mourning for Dorothy, or were sad for Seravi. A chosen few was actually quite happy...

Cha-cha followed his teacher with her family. She too was dressed formally for the occasion. She spoke nor looked at anyone, she feared for her teacher and what will happen to him now, after this.

Shiine was with his parents. His usual blue robe had been replaced with black. His parents were looking at him every now and then, and were relieved to see him bearing himself all too well.

Riya was in his Grandfather's shoulders and was at the back row, because of his height. He was busy crying his eyes out and nibbling chocolate that had been given out earlier by the Royal Family.

The procession was held in the middle of the streets. Traffic was stopped for them. Most of the onlookers knew the deceased so, they too joined in the line.

After a while of walking the people started to think about where they were headed. They had already passed the 2 graveyards and they were almost out of town. They started to look at each other and wondered in silence.

Cha-cha noticed this and asked her family about where they were heading.

Her mother smiled sweetly down on her and said, "Shhh, Cha-cha, we're almost there..."

"But where are we heading?" she asked again, unable to repress her curiosity.

"I do believe," this time, it was her father who spoke "That we're heading towards her house,"

"What? But we came from there earlier!" she said.

"No, no Cha-cha..." said her mother. "We're not heading back to Dorothy's castle, I do believe that we're taking her back, to where she truly belonged... to her parent's house..."

"Seravi is returning her to where he has taken her from all those many years ago..." continued her grandfather. "This is just so tragic!! _Ohhh!!_" he said as he broke down and sniffed.

Then they stopped. True to her family's words, they were now looking at the big wide gates of Dorothy's family.

However, there was quite a commotion inside.

From the outside, they could see fireworks exploding ever so often in the skies, even if it was daytime. It came from behind the large mansion.

"There's a party?" Riya said. He was able to look inside through his elevation. "Wow look at all those people!!" he said, getting wide-eyed. "They're dressed richly and.... _There's so many food!!!!!!_" he said, he jumped from his grandfather's shoulder down to Cha-cha's side.

"Halt!" said one of the black-uniformed soldiers at the gates. 

Seravi calmly went into the front ranks and talked to the guards. "We would like to see the owners of this house..."

"Impossible. None may pass," one of the soldiers said. "And what is that... is that a coffin? Is this some kind of a joke?"

Seravi shook his head. "Tell them, its Seravi..."

"Seravi?!" One of the soldiers reacted. They began to talk in whispers. Finally, one of them spoke.

"I'm sorry Mr. Seravi, but we're not allowed to let anyone in. We have strict orders,"

By this time, Cha-cha and her family was already by the gate and had taken over the negotiations. His father started to swing the royal emblem in front of the soldier's face. "Do you not recognize this young man? Do you not know who we are?" he asked them.

"Honey, don't be rude..." said Cha-cha's mother.

"Hey, that's my line!" piped in Cha-cha's grandfather.

The soldier froze and perspired coldly. "I-I'm s-sorry y-your Highness-sir... but we were not to allow anyone under any circumstances..."

"Excuse me," Cha-cha said, approaching one of the nicer guards. "But what's happening inside, is there a party?" she asked courteously.

"Hmm?" the guard asked as he leaned in closer to level with Cha-cha. "Oh yeah, its some sort of an engagement party,"

"An engagement party?! You mean Doris is actually getting married?!" Shiine said, unable to believe his ears.

"I can't believe it, you mean someone was actually blinded by him?!" then Riya made a vomiting gesture.

"Ohh no, its not for Ms. Doris, its for the other one... The one who came back after so many years..." he paused and seemed to think deeply.

"If I'm not mistaken, her name is..._Dorothy,"_

_¿...Dorothy...?_

¿¿*!*??

¿¿***?? Hahahaha!!! What a fine turn of events! Umm... no comment as of the moment. Alright, 3, 6, 12, and now the next update will come after the **24th** post. That'll take a while so, yay! I could focus on my studies first! :P if you want to know what's going to happen next, you know what to do right?


	5. The Other Man

¿* Pinked * Memories *?

¿* Chapter Five * The Other Man *?

"What did you say? What do you mean Dorothy's inside there?!" Riya repeated, unable to believe his ears.

"Well that's what her name was. Besides, they look exactly alike, it's like Ms. Doris was copied inch per inch. There's no doubt they're twins!"

"You got it the other way around, _its_ a he, and _it_ copied her..." Shiine argued weakly.

"Huh?!" the guard asked, confused.

"But this is impossible, Miss Dorothy's dead! Look, we even have an empty coffin for her, see?" Cha-cha said as she pointed to the rosewood coffin. 

The commotion was starting to spread and they all nodded in agreement.

"_WHAT DO YOU MEAN THAT WITCH IS STILL ALIVE?!?!?!?!?_" came a chorused shriek from the back rows.

Pushing others out of their way, Yakku and Chiremeko emerged from the crowd, their eyes burning with anger. Yakku was beside the guard in a short while and started slapping some sense into him. Chirimeko positioned herself behind the guard, and was pulling the poor guard's hair apart.

"She **can't** be alive, not now, not when I have my Prince Seravi _all to myself!!!_" Yakku said in between hits. Her eyes were like daggers and her teeth were sharp. 

"What do you mean all to yourself? He's **_mine_** do your hear me?! **MINE!!!**" Chirimeko protested. She stopped attacking the guard and engaged in a verbal contest with Yakku.

"Hey! You weren't in the picture until about minute ago!" Yakku shouted back. "You weren't there when Prince Seravi was so depressed and lonely!!"

"That's because I only found out about it recently!" Chirimeko defended. "Besides, it doesn't matter. Any which way you put it, I have higher chance with him because I'm older than you... hee hee hee hee," Chirimeko ended with a classic high-pitched laugh.

"**_YOU SHUT UP!!!!!_**" Yakku screamed, unable to think of anything to counter Chirimeko's statement. Yakku lunged at Chirimeko and they started fighting, Chirimeko posing like a cat and Yakku twirling her potions in hand like pistols.

The poor dazed guard fell to the floor.

"Oh my," the Queen said, approaching the starry-eyed guard. "Is this true? Dorothy's still alive then?"

"Makes sense, we haven't found her body anyway!" Cha-cha's father piped in.

_"She--she's still... alive?" _

The voice came a voice from the forgotten front ranks.

"Huh?" everyone turned to Seravi who had been momentarily ignored.

"_She's-----inside there?_" he said as if he was under a trance. He turned his attention to the house.

The glassy look took over his eyes,... then he started frowning and frowned deeper, until his eyes cleared and were back to their deep green selves again.

With one move, he passed the gates and was now on the other side. Before any of the guards can stop him, he dashed towards the house, away from sight.

_"Hey!! Go after him!!_" One of the guards said. There were a cluster of them now, at the gate.

"Uhh, sir, I think he's should be the least of our problems now..." one of the guards said, his voice somewhat quivering.

"Huh? Why?" The chief guard said and turned to the one who spoke. Then he gave a shriek at what he saw.

"Let's follow Teacher Seravi inside!" Cha-cha yelled for the others to hear.

They grunted in agreement.

"Everyone get ready to ram the gates!" Riya said in his loudest voice.

"For Teacher Dorothy!" Shiine added.

Now the crowd looked like bulls, nose flaring, one foot scratching the earth and getting ready to ram the gates.

Cha-cha and some of her friends were suddenly dressed like they were about to do a marathon run. Riya was even posing like an athlete and was advertising a particular product.

Sherwin the referee appeared in front, riding in his cloud. He raised his wand.

The guards grew afraid. They started to move away one step at a time.

"Y-You can't come in here..." one of them said, trying to sound as relaxed as possible.

"If w-w-w-we...let you in... they'll have our h-heads..."

Their eyes grew more determined. There was a glint in Sherwin's eyes. "On your mark..." he said.

"P-p-p-please have mercy on us!!!" the guards pleaded with them.

Everyone posed or kneeled as if getting ready to run.

"Get set..."

"N--n-no, I'm too young to die..." one of the guards said, then he ran away.

"Go!!!!"

The gates came tumbling down.

¿¿* *??

Everyone wears masks.

She knew that...

She was not naive...

So... seeing the people around her now, all their identities protected by their external covering that they wore on their face...

_What were they hiding?_

_Will they ever take if off?_

She raised one hand and felt the cold, hard surface of her own mask.

_Are they able to see through... me?_

_....._

_"You're so deep in thought..." _came a voice that pulled her out from her own reverie.

Her grey eyes turned towards the owner of the voice.

She saw a tall gentleman wearing a mask that was made of smoothed jade stones that were custom-fitted to his face. It covered the features around his eyes, starting from mid-forehead and ending with a curve that goes from one cheek, curves back to give room for the bridge of his nose, and goes downward again through the other cheek.

His piercing green eyes, it's color amplified by the colors of the precious jewels in his mask, his aristocratic nose, the lower part of this face and his small curved mouth were the only thing that were visible. He had long hair that almost matched the color of his mask, neatly tied behind his neck. He wore a simple-but-expensive looking tuxedo and he was holding a glass of champagne on his left hand.

He started walking towards her and even breached the extra distance that should be maintained between a gentleman and a lady.

He brushed back a stray hair that had fallen over her pure opal mask, also customized just for her.

"How did you know it was me?" she faintly asked.

"I will be able to find you, no matter what comes between us..." came his reply, his fingers traced the smooth surface of her mask.

A small smile formed on her lips, unconcealed. "What are the chances that you would mistake me for my sister?" she asked weakly, her eyes shining.

"None. I don't even want to consider such a circumstance," he replied, slightly frowning, and then smiled. 

They stared at each other for a moment, never letting go of each other's eyes, each reflected happiness and contentment.

"How are you feeling?" he asked after a while.

She looked away, "Not too good..." she replied after a pause. She cast down her eyes and reluctantly released her next words, "I feel an uneasiness in me... It's making me restless..." 

"You think its too soon?"

"No!" she answered immediately, looking up to him. "It's not that," she shook her head repeatedly. "Its just that there's so many people here today... And they're all strangers... I-I..." she lowered her head again.

He nodded and cupped her face, raising it gently to level with him. "Do not strain yourself too much... Remember you're still recuperating..."

A smile slowly formed on her lips.

The man paused and looked at her. He smiled too and then leaned in closer to kiss her.

Their lips almost met when---

"Excuse me sir, pardon my intrusion," interrupted a black-dressed man wearing sunglasses, bowing a little bit to the lady. "There's a phone call for you inside the house,"

"I see..." the man replied, he looked back to her and to the man again. "I'll take it inside," he said to the man.

The man in black bowed again and left.

He turned back to her, and they forced a smile to each other.

"Duty calls," he said apologetically.

"Its alright," she said, not looking at him.

"Would you like to come inside with me?" he asked.

She shook her head and smiled a little. "I think I need more fresh air... I'll go for a walk inside the hedgemaze,"

"Alright," he said, he picked up her hand and kissed the back of it. "Wait for me, I'll come find you..." he said.

She quietly smiled and nodded.

He took a bow and left.

She started walking heading towards the hedgemaze's entrance.

The edges of her long white dress glided smoothly through the grass.

She passed through the crowd and headed straight to the green gates that marked the hedgemaze's start.

She raised one hand and lifted the mask off her face...

....just as Seravi arrived at the scene and looked around.

His eyes scanned the place. Everyone were wearing masks. His eyes settled on a retreating figure of a woman dressed in blue. Her hair was pinned up in a chignon. And she was demurely walking away from the crowd.

Something in Seravi stirred. Without him fully being aware, he started to walk towards that lady.

He started walking faster and faster until he caught up with her, just before the entrance to the hedgemaze.

He grabbed her arm and turned her around.

With the force of his pull, the pin in her hair came loose and golden locks flowed like water. Her mask dropped to the ground and lay there, blue against green.

"What the--? _SERA**VI**?!?!?!_" the last syllable came out in a very high pitch. "**_Oh my god!_** You're _here!!_"

There was something wrong... Could it be...?

She fell into his arms and embraced him tightly.

Seravi realized his mistake and was severely disturbed. "Oh no! _**Not you!!!"**_ Goosebumps started to appear on his skin.

"Ahh, Seravi I knew it!" Doris said, rubbing _ITS_ head against his chest. "I knew someday you would realize your love for me..._ ohhh!!!!_"

"No! No! Get away from me!!" he said with passion. He threw _IT _to the ground and backed away.

But it was as if nothing happened, for in a second, _IT_ was back on Seravi's side, and locked him in a death-grip.

"Nyaaahhh!!" Seravi cried outloud as he struggled to get the vile thing's hand away from him.

The crowd started to notice them and they slowly came around them.

"Seravi, Seravi, I still can't believe it!! I must be dreaming! You finally realized your love for me and came! At last, my long wait has ended..." Doris chanted in a magical trance.

"Yes, this is all a dream it's a **NIGHTMARE**, please wake me up!!!!" Seravi pleaded. He wriggled, he stretched and he tried using telepathic energy, anything to get the _ITS_ grip away from him, without touching _IT_ as much as possible.

But, for Doris and all _ITS_ love, he didn't succeed. He was about to resort to serious magic when suddenly, a voice snapped them out of their animation.

"Doris! _**Shame on you!**_ Stop this unholy act at once! So help me god, I will disown you right here and now..."

The voice was successful in capturing _ITS_ attention. "But, but mother!!" Doris said, _IT_, gave away a little and Seravi immediately used the chance and threw _IT_ as far away from him as he possibly can.

_ITS_ scream and fall wasn't even heard anymore.

Seravi immediately brushed away anything that the _IT_ had left him and then finally settled down.

"Seravi... isn't it?" the male beside Doris' mother said. "How are you, you who had dishonored your family and this house so long ago?"

"Does the peasant way of life suit you well?" Doris' mother asked right after.

Seravi frowned, choosing to ignore the sarcastic remarks. "Where is Dorothy?" he asked bluntly.

"Hah! And I suppose you expect us to just hand her over to you?!" her mother said in a voice quivering with anger.

"Guards! Take him away!!" The head of the household said as he lifted his arms in gesture of the command.

....

.......

He raised an eyebrow and looked behind him. "Where are the guards?!"

A panting company of Cha-cha and the gang stood behind him, looking around.

"You mean to say that the guards at the gate were all that you had?!" Shiine asked, smirking. "We already took care of them, right Cha-cha?" he asked, turning to the others.

Unfortunately, they weren't paying attention. "Wow! Look at all those dresses! Are those jewel masks for real?! Wooow!!! They're so rich!!!" She was wide-eyed and was checking out the dresses of the women there.

And Riya was in heaven, gobbling down almost all the food in the buffet table. "Mmmm-hmm-hmm~!! Yummy!!!" he said.

"I see you've brought quite a troupe of firebrands with you," Doris' father said, raising an eyebrow.

"Firebrand?! You call us firebrands?!" The King said, The Royal Family came to the scene. 

"Oh, your majesty, I did not see you..." Doris' mother said, immediately adapting a respectul tone and bowing.

"Now, now," Cha-cha's mother said, trying to calm down the King. "Let's not make anything about it,"

"She's right, Father you're so hot-headed!" Carlos said.

"Well, I'm sorry..." Genus apologized.

"Would you kindly tell us," Cha-cha's mother started, looking back to the others behind her. "Is Dorothy alive, and if she is, where is she? What happened?"

"Ah! So all of you have come for her!" the Doris' father said. He turned towards her wife and urged her to speak.

She raised an eyebrow, and exerted no effort to hide the fact that she was severely irritated by the question and the obviousness of the answer

She took a deep breath and started speaking. "Yes, she is alive..."

The crowd immediately fell silent.

Her eyes scanned the crowd, and upon seeing the relieved expression of Seravi, she frowned in distaste.

"And she's getting married," she added quickly. 

"Hurrah!!" Yakku and Chiremeko squealed in delight. Most of the others suffered from silent shock. Seravi winced.

Cha-cha opened her mouth to speak, when Doris' mother raised her hands to silence them, and directed their attention to the jade-masked man who has just emerged from inside the house.

"You'd best address him, for further details about the coming event..."

They all turned to see the jade-masked man coming down the steps of the house with such posture and grace.

Seravi turned his attention sharply to him.

"Here is the man, who our daughter will be wedded to, come this time tomorrow,"

By that time, the jade-masked man was already upon the crowd, looking at everyone through his mask.

"Why don't you introduce yourself to them, my future son-in-law?" Doris' father said to him.

He gave a little nod in reply. He then raised one hand and slowly removed the mask from his face.

Everyone either gasped, or cried because of shock.

Yakku and Chiremeko gave the loudest shriek of all.

The man that stood before them now was a more refined, more affluent version... of Seravi himself!

Their eyes met, green against green.

The man smiled amusedly and slightly cocked his head.

_"Well Hello there..."_ he said looking only at Seravi whose eyes were also wide with shock.

_"Little brother..."_

¿¿*!*??

¿¿***?? New character! As with the rule, the next chapter will come after **48th** post! Hehehe...  
Oh yes, could you possibly help me solve a mystery? Does anyone know what Dorothy's last name is? Same question goes for Seravi. Because I can't keep calling their parents Doris' father or Dorothy's mother anymore, its tiring. Well, if there aren't anyone who does know, then I'm open for suggestions as to what Dorothy and Seravi's last name would be. Post your suggestion! More details on the new character, next chapter. 


	6. Hello Innocence

¿* Pinked * Memories *?

¿* Chapter Six * Hello Innocence *?

Seravi couldn't believe his eyes.

_"S-Serafid..."_ he said, acknowledging him.

"How now! You still remember my name..." he said sarcastically. "You, on the other hand, are one part of my life that I would give _anything_ to forget,.." he advanced a little, walking towards Seravi.

Seravi frowned, recovering immediately. He composed himself and stared fiercely at Serafid. "Still blaming me for your shortcomings brother? Is your brain still suspended in your childhood?!" he remarked.

"You are the one with shortcomings. " he said, reflecting his attack. "You who turned your back on your obligations to your family." He waved his hand. "I am not the one who disgraced our parents... Did you know what happened to Mother, Seravi? No, of course you don't, you never looked back after you ran away..."

Seravi stiffened. He lowered his eyes.

"But why should I do you a favor and tell you what happened to her? Why should I put up with seeing you?" He looked behind him, where there were a lot of black-suited scary looking fellows were. "Take him away!" he ordered.

They immediately ran towards him, in a second, he was caught.   
He didn't resist. He was still looking at Serafid. "Where is Dorothy?" he asked once again.

"I assure you," he said with a straight face, "she has already forgotten about you,".

The guards started to take Seravi away, when Cha-cha intervened.

"Hey! I'm not going to let you take my Teacher away!" she cried outloud.

"Ulp! Gow Sha-Sha!" Riya cheered from the buffet table, his mouth filled with food.

"I'm the greatest magician in the world! I'll show you what he has taught me!" she flexed her hand to the side. "Dragon, appear!!" she cried out.

A little dragon fly appeared tried attacking one of the guards at the nose, the guard flicked his fingers and hit the fly away from sight, leaving a red-faced Cha-cha.

"Oh dear, I do not think we should interfere," Cha-cha's mother said. "This is a family problem after all, they need to settle it themselves. Come, Cha-cha, let's just join in the party..."

"B-but, but--" Cha-cha said, when she was interrupted by a thousand buzzing noises.

They looked above to see the little dragon fly leading a battalion of bees.

"Uh-oh..." Shiine said as the black cloud of bees above grew.

The little dragon fly did a bee dance and signed for them to attack the black-suited guards who were now taking Seravi away.

After their little insect talk, the battalion of bees started darting down from the sky, attacking everyone on sight.

**"Aaaaahhhh!!!!!" **  
_"AAIIIIYYYYYEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!"_  
"RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!!!"

Everyone started running, looking for shelter on the rain of bees.

Cha-cha was left crying stunnedly. Shiine had to fish her out from the attack and they fled inside the house.

All except for Seravi who darted into the hedgemaze. He was panting and was leaning across one of the green hedges there, tired from running from the bees.

"You can never expect what Cha-cha's magic would bring, right Seravi?" Elizabeth asked.

"Yes Elizabeth, she even scares me sometimes..." he said wiping a stray hair from his brow.

"Do you know where we are?" Elizabeth asked.

A small smile formed on Seravi's lips. "Of course Elizabeth, I have a lot of fond memories of this place back when I was still a child..." he went into a trance of childhood.

After a moment of silent recollection, Elizabeth broke in, "Is Serafid really your brother?".

Seravi paused, a shady look came over his eyes. "Yes Elizabeth, he is the only sibling that I have, he's older than me by two years... He...." he stopped. He looked up to the blue sky and all around the green walls around him. He could hear the birds happily chirping somewhere, and also, there was a faint sound of rushing water.

"When we were very young, I was about 4 or so, Serafid and I were brought by our parents for the first time to this mansion," He leaned dusted his robe and smoothed its edges. He began to walk forward, turning expertly turning every now and then, manipulating his way around the hedgemaze.

"We went here because my parents and Dorothy's parents came to an arrangement." He shook his head, as if remembering something foolish. "In order to tie our family's relationship closer, they had decided to have one of my parent's sons to marry their daughter..."

"Dorothy?" Elizabeth asked.

He paused for a while, then weakly answered, "Yes..." a small smile formed on his lips. "I was younger than her by about a year, so the natural choice would be my brother who was older than me. When we were told of the news, Serafid refused violently. He didn't come out of his room and nor ate. He refused to talk to anyone except... to me..." he smiled again bitterly.

"We were very close then... He used to talk to me all about his dreams... What he wanted to be one day, how he was going to do it... I was very jealous of him... He was an achiever and I had to live under his shadow the whole time we were together..."

"I guess it runs in the family..." Elizabeth commented.

"And it was so ironic, that all of his dreams always had something about him running away..."

"He wanted to leave the life that he had... I didn't understand it then... And when he was told of being bethroted to some complete stranger, I guess he snapped. He was like that way for a long, long time,... And then one summer, our parents had told us that we were going on a vacation somewhere..." 

"Serafid thought that it was his chance to escape, so he planned to go to whatever place we were going to and just disappear there. We were very suprised when they took us to a mansion, and were introduced to Dorothy's parents... but there was a problem..." Seravi smiled openly at the memory.

"They couldn't find their daughter. Apparently, she was just as opposed to the whole arrangement just as he was. So in all of the commotion, my brother took his chance and tried to escape... I followed him because I didn't want to get left behind. We ended up going inside the hedgemaze." He paused. 

"We're almost near the center, Elizabeth,"

Elizabeth was still smiling.

"We went in here, I followed Serafid for the longest time as we went in circles around this place. And then we came at a fork in the hedges that lead to two different directions. Serafid, then acknowledging my presence, instructed me to pick one path and yell if I find the exit..."

"So did you find the exit?" Elizabeth asked.

"No, Elizabeth, he found the exit, I picked the path on the right and ended up in the center..." They were standing before the fork in the road of his memory. He turned to the right path again and went there. " I turned right into this corner and---" Seravi lifted his eyes and gasped.

Elizabeth was dropped to the floor.

There was someone there ahead of him. She was in the center of the opening in the middle of the hedgemaze, her back was turned to him. 

She was standing before the fountain-statue of Phoebe, the goddess of the moon, who was leaning down and had her arms widespread as if to take her away.

The flowers around were blooming, there was a sweet minty scent in the air. The sound of the rushing water teased his ears.

That single moment seemed to last forever. 

"I-I find you here again..." Seravi said.

Then, as if she heard, the woman moved and slowly turned around. On her left hand, she held a clear opal mask, further up her hand, was a big diamond stone on her ring finger.

Her eyes met his. There was no mistake.

Seravi's eyes watered.

He staggered forward, his legs heavy. He took one step

_time stood still_

after another

_he cannot be dreaming_

one step

_you're here_

after another

_where I first saw you so long ago..._

.....................

_Dorothy..........._

.....................

and then finally stood face in face with her.

He raised one hand and tried to touch her. But then he chose to take all of her in his arms.

His hands ran up and down her blonde hair.

"I finally found you... I almost, _almost_ gave up..." he whispered in her ear.

Her grey eyes were wide with shock. She opened her small pink mouth to speak.

_"Who are you?"_

Seravi snapped out of his trance. He let go of her and backed down. "Wha-what?" he asked, searching her eyes deeply.

She was also frowning, her features were creased but she was still very beautiful. She examined his face and remained detached.

"You look amazingly like someone I know, yet I know you're not him..." she backed down, still unaware of what was happening. "So who are you? Are you one of the guests?"

"Wha--what do you mean...?" Seravi asked. "Its me, Seravi! I lo---" he was suddenly locked in a tight embrace.

"**_SISTER!!!!_**" Doris squealed. "How dare you **flirt **with _my_ Seravi, **MY **_fiancé_?!?!" 

"Is that right?" Dorothy asked her. She paused and looked away, as if thinking long and hard.

Seravi couldn't believe his ears. He was about to say something when she opened her mouth again and spoke.

"Oh, you must have mistaken me for my twin," she exclaimed in a very demure manner and smiled a bit.

She stared at him, her eyes smiling. He couldn't place what she was thinking. _Are you mocking me Dorothy? What kind of game are you playing? _he wanted to scream, but the expression on her face stopped him.

She was completely innocent. She wasn't lying... the Dorothy of his dreams, of his childhood... has returned. No more of the vulgar, insecure, UGLY pink-haired woman that had possesed his beautiful Dorothy and had defiled her, transforming her into an unbearable monster that he had to endure all these years. 

Finally, she was just like how he wanted her to be...

"I see... I think I remember you now. Forgive me Mr. Seravi, I had an accident recently..." she shook her head. Her eyes were shining. She stepped forward.

"You are the younger brother of my future husband, you are family...." she smiled sweetly.

Seravi was going to protest, but Dorothy's golden smile paralyzed him, he stood in awe at the afterglow of her wondrous smile.

Doris held Seravi tighter than an anaconda to its prey. Its eyes were sharp and and she looked ready to bite.

She moved in closer to him. "I hope you accept my apologies. It is wonderful to meet you," she said, she stepped up to him and kissed him in the cheek.

Seravi froze... somewhere between seeing Dorothy's blonde hair, the shimmer of it, her exquisite white gown, her shining gray eyes, her small pink lips, the kiss that she had given him, the way she had been behaving... 

He lost all reason.

"_Oh my god!!_ **SISTER** how **dare** you?!?!?!" Doris exclaimed. It immediately took a handkerchief and started rubbing Seravi's cheek clean. Seravi's face was pulled to and fro and the flesh in his cheek sagged, but he didn't mind. He was still in shock.

Dorothy was bewildered. "But sister, it meant nothing, please, it was all for pleasantry..." she tried to explain.

"Ahhh don't come near us!!!" Doris told her. Since Seravi's knees turned into jelly and he wasn't even concious anymore, Doris lifted him up and carried him on its back. They started to walk away.

"Oh my, sister you're so strong!" Dorothy said, more appalled than shocked but she tried to hide it.

"Keep away from us, you hear?!?!?!?!?!" Doris said just before they turned down the corner.

"But sister, say that you forgive me first," Dorothy said, chasing after them.

Doris ran away carrying the still-jelly-brained Seravi, and disappeared behind the hedges.

Dorothy tried to follow them but she was interrupted by something that was smiling up to her from the ground. She leaned down and picked up the doll that Seravi had left behind.

"Well hello there," she said, picking up the doll and cradling it in her arms.

A blank look fell over her eyes... A smile escaped her lips...

"E...li...za...beth...uhhh!!!" her hands lifted up to her temples, where a throbbing headache had began. Her frown deepened, she began to breathe deeply, tears edged on her eyes. She had to lean on to a wall for support. It was as if her head was going to explode. 

And then, just as quickly as it came, it stopped. Her eyes became clear again.

She turned innocently back to the doll again. "I wonder who this belongs to? She looks so familiar..." turning the doll over from one side to the other.

She smiled sweetly down to the doll and held it up with one arm.

"Come on doll, I think we should follow my sister and see what's taking Serafid so long..."

They walked together and disappeared in the hedgemaze.

Dorothy was back

¿¿*!*??

¿¿***?? I read the complaints. Alright, I won't demand for reviews anymore. But here's the glitch: the period between my updates will now be indefinite.


	7. Dorothy's Curse

¿* Pinked * Memories * ?

¿* Chapter Seven * Dorothy's Curse * ?

"Are the bees gone yet?" Riya asked Shiine who was standing in front of one of the large windows that go from the ceiling to the floor inside the mansion.

Shiine scanned the situation outside very carefully, then he turned to them and nodded.

Everyone gave a sigh of relief.

"Good heavens child, I never expected you to have such powerful magic!" Doris' father praised. I must remember to keep away from her now on, he thought to himself.

Cha-cha smiled and scratched her head.

"Is anyone hurt?" Cha-cha's mother asked looking around worriedly.

"Is everyone here?" Carlos asked.

Cha-cha looked around. "Oh no! Teacher Seravi isn't here!" she exclaimed.

"Yes, that utterly rude man isn't here!" Doris' mother exclaimed at first. _I hope the bees got him good_, she thought to herself, smiling arrogantly.

"Relax Cha-cha!" Riya said to her, patting her on the back. "This is Seravi we're talking about, he can take care of himself!"

"I guess you're right Riya..." Cha-cha said smiling a bit.

"Oooohhh..." Doris mother said, clenching her fists. With the party spoiled, and an incoming-headache threatening, she turned her heel and spun out of the room. 

His husband soon followed afterward. 

They passed Serafid on their way out. He had his back turned on them. He turned around just as they passed him. 

There were a lot of girls that were huddled around him. Earlier, when the bees fell, almost all of the ladies there had gone and thrown themselves on him to beg him to save them… (but in fact, they were the ones who pulled Serafid inside the mansion to where they were now). 

He had a slightly annoyed look on his face and was thinking deeply.

He paid no attention to them. 

When he was younger he would have taken up the opportunity to play with the most beautiful one there, but he had no care for that now. 

Things are already different.

He already had her, all that he had ever asked for.

But now his very own brother is threatening to take her away. _AGAIN_.

And he just lost the chance to rid to rid himself of this ancient thorn in his side. 

Was he jealous? Was he threatened that since Seravi now showed up in the scene 

before he was eternally united with Dorothy, he might have a chance to take her 

away from him again like before, so many years ago?

"No!" he groaned outloud. Fate had brought her back to him… 

It was fate that had given them a second chance. And there is no way that that raggedly dressed brother of his could dissuade destiny! There was no way at all.

After all, wasn't it fate that had betrothed the two of them in the first place? 

Weren't they meant to share forever with each other? Yes, that's exactly it.

But… if it was destiny… then why did she slip away the first time…? And with no one else but his own sibling to blame?

He frowned angrily. His lips twitched upwards.

In his mind's eye, he saw Seravi once again, running through the lawn, trying to escape the insect attack… look back at him slowly one last time… and then turned, heading straight to the hedgemaze's entrance… 

Slowly, realization dawned upon him. His features change from one of anger, to confusion, to worry. 

Without saying a word, he bolted out the door.

"What's gotten into him?" Riya said. Serafid almost collided with him in his run, save for a few centimeters. "Suddenly there's this gentle look in his eyes," he continued, his fangs were bared and looked ready to bite. 

"You don't like him Riya?" Cha-cha asked. 

"Anyone related to Seravi must be like him, therefore I don't like him at all!" he said conclusively, his eyes closed. 

"But I wonder where he scurried off to...?" Shiine asked. He posed in his usual thinking gesture. 

Then he gasped, "He must be going to where my teacher is!!!!"

"That's right! Let's follow him!!" Cha-cha suggested.

The trio immediately ran outside.

The crowd followed soon after.

¿¿* *??

"Ohh... my Sera**_vi_**...?" Doris asked _its_ voice somewhat shy. _It_ wanted to look at Seravi but couldn't because of his position on _its_ back. 

A drool escaped Seravi's mouth. He was still in the land of the dreaming. In his mind, Dorothy's lips was still on his cheek,  

_he was holding her blonde hair_

_they were locked in a tight embrace_

_dancing to the sound of the wind..._

................

"Tell me... if I had been born a girl, would you have chosen me over my sister...?" They were still walking inside the hedgemaze.

"_No!!!_" _it_ shook its head, answering its own question. A glimmer of intelligence shone somewhere in _its_ eyes but it rapidly burned out. 

"I just can't explain it... _ahhh.._." they stopped walking. "It feels _so_** good** to _just_ be near you like this," it lowered its head. "I _know_ that _what I feel_ for you is _not normal_... but it doesn't **need** to be!" a hopeful look came over _its_

eyes. "I'm just _overflowing _with so much **_feeling_**_ for you_! Its _so hard_ to _keep sane!_"

The dreamy expression was still on Seravi's face. He was now holding Dorothy's hand and they were walking down the beach... 

_Roses are red, _he would say to her

_Violets are blue_

_And no one has_

_as blonde a hair as you_

"Sera_vi...?_ _I love you so much..._ No, you don't have to say anything..." _it_ paused. 

Then _it_ frowned. "Its such a _selfish love_ that's why I think it will _never be requited..._" a shady look fell upon _its_ eyes. 

"There are just _soooo_ many things that I regret in my life... well, I regret _almost_ everything... I regret not being born a woman so as to _lose_ the first basic right _to love you_… But most of all I hate being Dorothy's twin and always have to c_ompete with her!!!!!_" tears formed on the edges of _its _eyes. 

**_"And I lose everytime!!"_** a screaming bat flew overhead, as if something had startled its peaceful slumber. 

"She was _always_ **their** _favorite_. Even _when she ran away_ our parents couldn't bring themselves to speak against her. _I **never** have a **chance **against her!_" _it _bawled. 

"**_Hu_hu_hu_hu**_hu_**hu**!!!" _it_ gasped for air like a fish out of water. 

"_Supposedly..._" _it_ said, its voice croaking like a frog, all womanly-coating temporarily gone. "Supposedly, twins are the _halves_ of a whole... but what whole was that? _She_--She's already **perfect** _by herself!! **I am the one who's inadequate!**_

_The one always unloved..._" _its_ mouth was quivering, another bawling attack threatened to come out.

Seravi was still in a trance he did not want to wake up from... His eyes, ears and mouth were wide open, but nothing was registering in his brain.

"_And then there was you..._ I don't _regret_ having met **_you_**... You were just so **_perfect_**... its **_so hard_** not to _fall in love with you..._" it looked up to the sky, the tears on the edges of its eyes fell down its cheek.. 

"I just thought... if someone _like you_ were to _fall in love with me..._ then I..._might_ not feel so...bad anymore... If someone _like you_ were to _see me beautiful_ then _I can stop being so miserable..._" it smiled bittersweetly. It had one hand over its chest. 

"And if there's even the _slightest_ chance that you could _transfer your love_ from _my sister to me_... then **I'll take it!**" _it_ proclaimed, _its_ hands moved in time with its words, as if performing in a stage drama. 

"_Its not so hard!_ We're twins, _we're alike!_ If you would only _look the other way,_ if you can _love me just as the way that you loved my sister..._ Maybe then, I will finally become a **_true_**_ woman..._"

"Ohhh... _and I know the road there is rough!!!!!!_" _it_ said as _it_ finally continued on _its_ walking on towards the exit of the warren. The conversation lost its intelligence and _it_ began blabbering about how they could have a 

child... and what the child's name would be...

When they were out of earshot, someone who had been in the shadows all those time came out.

There was a sad look clouding her gray eyes.

_"Oh my sister..."_ she said.

¿¿* *??

_Ohh no… If they were to meet and he tries to remind her… _Serafid thought. He winced as he made his way across the lawn in a hurry. 

_Please be alright... _he thought. _If something happens to you again, I... _He frowned.

_I will never forgive myself... I will never be able to continue on living…_

By this time he broke into a run and then turned around the corner where the hedgemaze started---

And then he bumped into something solid.

Serafid fell flat on his back and was thrown several paces back onto the lawn. He immediately tried to get up and looked at what kind of wall did he bounce back from.

There stood Doris who wasn't even _stirred_ by the impact.

**_"You!"_** he said disgustedly. He got up and stared at _it_. "_Where's your sister?!_ Who is that on your back?!" he demanded.

"_Butt off!_ Why do you suddenly bump into a lady and not apologize?!" _it_ said, not even flinching.

By this time, Cha-cha and the gang arrived at the scene.

"I do not have time to play games with you! I repeat, where is Dorothy?!" he said, his voice fiercer than before. "I swear I will hold you liable for even the slightest injury that might have befallen her all this time!!" his eyes were 

serious and angry.

_"What?!"_ Doris squealed again in that classic trying-hard-to-sound-like-a-woman's high-pitched voice. Its body was quivering with anger. Serafid could really get into her nerve sometime. It was about to launch a verbal attack that would render Serafid's eardrums in a state of revolt for several days, when a soft clearly audible voice came from behind it.

_"The both of you, please calm down,"_ the familiar voice requested from inside of the hedgemaze.

Doris turned to see her sister standing behind them. _It_ cocked _its_ head and moved forward, out of the entrance of the hedgemaze. 

"Well, if you'll excuse me, the _traitor-twin-fiancé-kisser_ has come," it said sarcastically. It then stomped away, with Seravi as its prize. 

With the _"IT"_ out of the way, the view opened up to a white-gowned, blonde-haired Dorothy who was holding Elizabeth with her left hand. Mask gone, her hair still pinned up in a chignon. She was the picture of a perfect 

aristocrat, minus the self-asserting nature.

She was like an angel, a wonderful bride, an idol, a goddess... 

Her beauty resonated from her out in all directions.

A breeze blew softly through. Everyone held their breath.

Her eyes were cast down at first, as if ashamed to look into the people that were gathered in front of her. Then after taking a soft sigh, she slowly raised her eyes and quietly moved forward. She scanned the crowd with a gentle gaze, and when they rested upon Serafid, she smiled a little. 

All earthly worries flew out from his mind. 

A sharp draw of breath came from almost all of the male population of the crowd.

"Teacher Dorothy!" Shiine cried, he raced towards Dorothy and embraced her 

waist. He started crying uncontrollably.

"There you are! We were so worried," Cha-cha said, smiling despite her tears. The three of them moved closer to Dorothy.

"I knew you were alright, all along," Riya lied, tears falling down his cheek, he wiped it immediately.

The crowd gave a relieved sigh. They were all happy to see that Dorothy was indeed safe and well, and that she was still in this world. But she was acting so strange... 

And some of the men were reacting strangely as well...

"Let me at her, _let--me--at--her!!!_" Yakku exclaimed as she tried to wriggle free from Suzu's grasp. "She has to pay for all the pain my Prince went through!!" 

"We're so glad you're ok," Cha-cha said, wiping her tears. She looked up to Dorothy and then suddenly gasped, "Wait a minute you have blonde hair!!!!!"

For the first time they all noticed the transformation. The crowd suddenly buzzed with excitement. _What will happen when Seravi sees her?_ they wondered and pondered the possibilities.

"She had a makeover!" someone said outloud. "With a new personality to boot!"

"Yeah, she must have taken anger management over the last few weeks! The transformation is remarkable!"

"Wow! It must be yoga!!"

"No! Its just a really expensive shrink!!"

"_Ohhh my god,_ **I'M IN LOVE!!!!!!**"

The crowd blabbed on as to why Dorothy was acting this way. The men were now slowly making their way near to her.

Yakku froze in her movements, her eyes were wide with disbelief. Now, with that witch's hair blonde, she realized she didn't stand a chance... 

"S-Serafid... _w-who are all these people?_" she asked, there was a hint of fear in her voice. She broke away from Shiine's clasp on her waist and went to Serafid's side, as if using him as a shield from them. Serafid's arms held her protectively.

**_"WHAT?!?!?!"_** they all exclaimed. The crowd got noisier. They all discussed what could possibly be going on with Dorothy.

"Aha! Amnesia!!!" someone shouted again.

"Bad news for Seravi! _Good news for me!!!!!!"_

"You're wrong, look at the way Serafid and her hold each other, _it must be LOVE!!!!"_

"_Ohhhh yeahhh!!!!!!! I've found my reason for living!!!!"_

"**_MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!_**" Yakku and Chiremeko laughed in chorus. Their victory is now at sight! But then they caught each other's eyes and electricity passed through them.

"Huh, huh?! Don't you know who were are?!" Cha-cha asked, her voice frantic.

"I-I'm sorry, no..." she whispered in a barely audible voice, the worried look never left her face. She buried herself into Serafid's arms, cowering away inside them.

"I'm the strong and handsome Riya!" Riya introduced to her, playing along.

"And I'm his wife Marin!!!" Marin said as she enveloped Riya in a bone-crushing hug.

_"He-Hello Dorothy,"_ Mr Rascal said, suddenly popping into of the scene and kneeling in front of Dorothy. He bowed his head and brought out a bouquet of red roses and pointed it to her. "I-if you don't remember me... M-my name is Rascal, 

and _I think I love you!!!_ Now is my chance... _ohh Dorothy, I never knew you could be such a goddess with your blonde hair---_"

**_"Get away from her!!!"_** Serafid screamed as he sent Mr. Rascal flying up the sky.

"_Oh... hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi!!!_" Yakku laughed her worries away. "And I'm Seravi's wife!!!" she introduced herself. Then she shifted her gaze to Serafid. "_I…could be your wife too you know..._" she suggested.

"_What do you mean you're his wife_, you're just our **maid!** **_I'M _**his _WIFE!!!!!!!!_" 

Chiremeko protested. Then they rolled away and fought with each other like cats and dogs.

Mr. Bara-bara-man then appeared behind Dorothy, roses popping out of his head. "He-hello Ma'am... I know you're older than me and…and stuff... but I've **never **_felt_ this way about anyone..." he said, his eyes shining, tears edging in its 

corners. "I think... _I think_..... **uhhhh**," he was shivering. Dorothy backed away. 

_"I'M OVERFLOWING WITH LOVE FOR YOU!!!!!"_ he threw his arms open and a thousand thorns came out, as he tried to envelop Dorothy in a bone-crushing hug. Serafid came and traded place with her in time and he was the one pricked with the 

thorns. Afterwards, Mr Bara-bara-man, with more than a few broken bones, joined Mr Rascal in flying through the skies.

¿¿**??

"Wha-what's happening?" Cha-cha's mother asked. "Its as if every man here suddenly fell in love with Dorothy upon seeing her... Dear?" she said, turning to her husband.

"Yes?" Carlos asked in a perfectly normal voice. His body was leaning towards his other side and he seemed to be doing something.

"You're not affected?" she asked.

"No I'm not... I don't know why,… but Father is..." he said, turning to her. He was holding his father with both hands, trying to prevent him from running in front of Dorothy and professing his love as well.

"Let go of me! _Let go of me!_ I order you to! I am the King of this land!" Genus threatened.

"But father, you're going to disgrace our family!" Carlos said. "And you're just going to give yourself a heart attack!!"

"I don't care, _I don't care!!!!_ I feel so _young_ again!!!! Boy, I never realized how much children could grow so fast..." Genus said as he continued to stare at Dorothy with love-glazed eyes.

¿¿**??

"But, what are you talking about Teacher?! I'm Shiine! I'm your apprentice! Don't you remember me at all?!" Shiine said, his eyes pleading. He went to her side again and started pulling her skirt. 

Dorothy, stricken with terror because of the harrasing events that was happening on her one by one, looked at Shiine frightenedly. She was on the verge.

¿¿**??

Riya's grandfather suddenly kneeled in the lawn, causing the ground to tremble. He too, had been captivated by her otherwordly beauty. "I-I may be old... and I may already _have grandchildren_... but in _all my years of _

_wandering this world_, never have I seen such a---" he said, then he became paralyzed and couldn't go on.

Serafid, now back into the scene, was now instructing a large crane to carry 

Riya's grandfather away from the mansion. He was expertly handling the situation, as if he had already experienced it before…

¿¿**??

A lot of men followed suit... There was too many to enumerate them and to detail the various professions of love that had passed through their lips.

¿¿**??

At Serafid's cue, a group of black-suited, gunned men now formed a protective circle around Dorothy, Serafid, and the three kids.

¿¿**??

"But there must be some mistake!!!!" Cha-cha exclaimed, oblivious to the chaos happening around her. "Riya! Can you smell her? Is it really her?!" Cha-cha asked.

Riya went to Dorothy and started smelling her all around. 

_"What on earth are you doing?!"_ Serafid exclaimed, apparently still sane. He enveloped Dorothy in a protective embrace once again.

Dorothy was now in a state of shock. She was looking at the sky with blank eyes. There a bird flew and discarded its poop, which fell on Seravi's head.

¿¿**??

Riya went all around her, at one point, even pulling up her skirt to check if there's some artificial scent-emmiting concoction that could be there to alter her scent.

"There's no mistake, it is her!" he reported back to Cha-cha with big lump on his head and many guards pointing guns at him.

Shiine, thinking quickly, pulled out the circle memento that he got from the cliff. It was a circle piece of blue cloth with yellow lines that formed a star in the middle. It used to hang from a string that was connected to Dorothy's hat in her witch's costume not too long ago.

"But that _can't_ be!" Cha-cha said, looking at Serafid and Dorothy who were so close to each other. One minute, Serafid was helping the guards keep the man circle from breaking, the next, trying to get Dorothy to come out of her 

self-induced catatonia. "Teacher Seravi won't approve!! _Where is he?!_" she looked around over the guards' figure and saw the retreating figure of Doris with the still-stunned Seravi on its back.

"Hey _thief!!!!!_ Where are you taking Teacher Seravi?!" Cha-cha screamed outloud and then chased after Doris. Riya turned into a wolf and followed Cha-cha. Yakku and Chiremeko saw Doris' attempted kidnapping and ran in to join Cha-cha in 

pulling Seravi back.

"Teacher Dorothy... don't you remember me? Any of us?" he said, tears edging in the corner of his eyes. "Don't you remember this?" he asked as he placed the memento in her hands.

In that moment, the noise of the crowd seemed to cease, the only ones who were there were Shiine and his teacher… trying to talk heart-to-heart…

¿¿**??

"When I get through with you, you _transexual_, **_YOU'D WISH YOU WERE NEVER BORN!!!!!!_**" Yakku screamed, for a moment, Doris with Seravi on its back, along with the chasing women composed of Cha-cha, Yakku and Chiremeko, plus the 

barking dog, broke through the circle of guards when many men couldn't. They were still running around the lawn, fighting over the temporarily Dorothy's-kiss-induced-dumb-brained disease that has taken over Seravi's system.

¿¿**??

"Mi-Miss Dorothy... please remember us... please.... I... I don't know what I'd to without you..." Shiine confessed as he broke into silent sobbing. Serafid was busy keeping the circle of guards held in place, assisting in the bordering himself.

¿¿**?? scene-stealer again

The circle of guards broke again, this time it was Chiremeko heading the chase with Seravi in her arms and Riya biting on her head, they were still running around, still being chased by Cha-cha, Yakku, and the "it" Doris.

¿¿**??

Dorothy raised her hand where her memento was.

She stared at it with full eyes. Little by little, glimmer came back.

¿¿**??

Again intruders entered, this time, it was Yakku who had Seravi on her back, Riya was now standing on Cha-cha's head, barking at Yakku, the others still chasing.

¿¿**?? 

Flashes were coming back to her. Blurry pictures.

(a pink-haired woman was pointing her wand a green haired man who was holding a doll, behind them was a land of rubble and fire)

(a little sniveling, blue-robed boy was holding a book for the first time, and he consumed every word in the book as if it was the most delicious food on earth)

(a beautifully arranged small round table with every representative of the food groups present, the usual breakfast that…)

(a view of the deep sea as seen from on top of a high cliff at dusk, the breeze, the waves in the distance, a haunting memory)

A tear escaped her eyes.

(and then, she started to fall down the cliff… her vision turned black…) 

Then suddenly...

She started to scream in pain

"**Aa**a_aa_a**aa**aa_aa_aa**aa**aa_aa_aa**aa**aa_aa_aa**aa**aa_aa_hh**hh**hh_hhh_hhh**hhh**hhh_hhh_hhh**hhh**hhh_hhh_hhh_!_**!**_!_**!**_!_**!**"

Everyone stopped what they were doing and turned to where the painful wailing has coming from.

Even Cha-cha, Yakku, Chiremeko and Doris who were playing human tug-of-war with 

Seravi as the rope, everyone vs Doris, momentarily halted.

Seravi momentarily said "Huh," but then he immediately slumped to the ground.

"_Aaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!_ **uhh---**" Dorothy yelped in pain, and then she suddenly fainted and fell straight into Serafid's arms.

"_Dorothy!!!!_" he exclaimed. For a prolonged moment, he looked into her troubled, unconcious form, his eyes were frantic. Then he slowly looked up.

His eyes looked _cruel_ and _murderous_, they seemed to look around as if looking for someone—_anyone_ to blame. And then he looked into Dorothy's frail, beautiful 

form again.

The chignon was now outformed and her hair was free. He stroked her head gently.

"Right, let's get out of here," he said in a gentle voice, as if talking to her. He then lifted Dorothy to make her lean onto him and he held her tight in an embrace. Then, without saying a word, they disappeared from where they were 

standing.

Everyone's jaw dropped in amazement. The guards that had formed a circle, one by one marched away in military fashion.

Only Shiine was now left in the protective circle that had been there.

Cha-cha, followed by Riya who had Seravi on his back, the winner of the match, 

approached Shiine. "Did you see that?!" she asked.

"Cha-cha..." Shiine said, too shocked to speak.

"What the hell was that?" Riya asked.

"T-Teleportation, Teleportation magic!! They, they said it was all a myth..." he said, temporarily forgetting his weeping.

"Huh?!" Cha-cha exclaimed, willing Shiine to go on.

"A spell so powerful, it was said that it could never be used by mere humans," 

Shiine said a serious tone in his voice. "He must be very powerful..."

"Very powerful indeed..."

¿¿* *??

"Hohoho, that was quite a show," Doris father said as he turned away from watching the ruined party in the lawn from one of the balconies on the upper floor.

"Are they finished yet?" Doris mother asked, she was sitting in one of the benches there, quitely sipping tea.

"Yes, Serafid took Dorothy away," he said calmly.

"About time. My daughter should never be subjected to such circumstances, again," she said in an authoritative tone.

"You speak as if its such an unpleasant thing to endure, did you not enjoy the same events when you were young?" he asked.

"Not one bit!" she said indignanty. She placed her cup back into the saucer and placed it on the table. "Perhaps you men would, considering that you want to be surrounded by a lot of women all the time. Us, on the other hand, certainly do not desire overly-hormoned individuals, especially if there's too many of them to mooning around us all the time!" She stood up.

"Well, such is the curse of your lineage, my darling, its but natural that you pass it to one of your own," he answered calmly.

"Yes, I suppose you're right. This is the curse of being too beautiful, everyone would want you, say that they love you..." she looked into the eyes of her husband who she had been married to for so many years now. "Men would worship the very ground that you walk upon, wars would be waged because of you... all in the name of love. And yet..." her voice traced away.

"No one will ever, truly love you for as long as you are that beautiful…" her eyes looked away.

"Is that why you changed the color of you hair from blonde to violet?" he asked, looking at his wife's rich violet hair.

"Yes… that's precisely why. And I think that's the reason why I'm happy today…" she said as she took her husband's hand.

"Hahaha…" he said good naturedly. "But I am still waiting for the day that you'd change the color of you hair back to the way it was…"

"You will wait for eternity…" she said with finality.

And he decided, if there was the slightest chance to… he might…

¿¿*!*??

This is version two of Chapter Seven. I am awfully, awfully sorry for the TON of grammaticaly mistakes that were present previously. (I'm so ashamed…) thank you for pointing out this mistake, I wanted to edit it but did not have the motivation to do it… At least until someone actually pointed it out… errr… Really, thank you.

Expect the next chapter to be out by the end of next week.

Thank you for your continued patronage to this story.


	8. The Wedding at Night

Warning! This is a very long chapter. I am very sorry for the long delay.

¿* Pinked * Memories * ?

¿* Chapter Eight * The Wedding at Night * ?

The dark shadows were long in this room. The moon outside radiated with its borrowed light. Every now and then there would be a cold breeze that would pass through the window and move the shadowy curtains and the ghost-like veils that surrounded the large bed.

The wind brings its chill. 

He shifted in his seat and continued looking at her.

Dorothy lay in the middle of the bed, her head was slightly turned towards one side. Every now and then her rhythmic breathing would be disturbed and she would let out a moan.

She had a deep frown on her face.

His green brows crossed in worry. He feared for her. _Could she be dreaming of things that should remain forgotten?_ He placed one hand on top of her forehead, hoping that she would calm down a bit.

She shivered a little.

His hands went down from her forehead and took the edge of her blanket and pulled it up to cover her body.

His hands lingered on the spot where it came in contact with her exposed skin. 

She stirred, as if noticing the warmth.

Then suddenly, she gasped and opened her eyes, as if awakening from a nightmare.

_"Serafid!" _she called out. She sat up immediately, and panted. She raised one hand into her chest to feel her racing heart.

She looked around in the darkness. She ran her hand on the other side of the bed, feeling for him. "Serafid...? Serafid, _where are you?!_" 

"Darling, I'm here," he answered. He grasped her hand with both of his. "I'm sitting right here. Don't worry, go back to sleep," he said gently.

"Ohhh," she said as Serafid rose up from his seat and sat beside her on the bed. He took her in his arms and tried to calm her. She wiped her forehead with her other free hand. "I had an awful, _awful_ dream..." she laid her head on his shoulders. "But I can't seem to remember it..." she whispered.

"Its alright, please rest," he coaxed.

"Serafid... what happened?" she asked, looking up at him.

"What do you remember?" he asked carefully. He pulled the blanket and wrapped it around their bodies.

"The party... some people came... and... Doris..." she frowned. "I seem to have been fighting with her... I... _Seravi...?" _she said, frowning.

Serafid did not move or make a noise. He simply listened.

"There was a man that looked so much like you... His name was Seravi, and..... he's your brother! And..." she shook her head.

"It happened again didn't it?" she asked him. "Every men... they were..." her voice trailed off.

"Except those who were already truly in love, every men wanted you," he said for her. 

She bowed her head, pulled her hand back from his grasp and tried to move away from him. "I am sorry... I took off my mask..." she tension building up in her voice.

"Dorothy? Dorothy, look at me," he requested.

"I have _disgraced you again. Forgive me..."_

Serafid went to her side in the bed and enveloped her in his arms. "Its alright, it doesn't matter,"

"I am truly sorry..." she said truthfully. Her voice thick was with emotion.

"It is fine." he shook his head. "Do not let it trouble you so," he stroked her head. "However, there is something I would like to ask you..."

"Say it. I will do anything," she said readily and looked at him.

Serafid got up from the bed and went to the side table where he took something from on top it. He then went back to her and placed the object in her hand.

A curly blonde-haired doll with little button for eyes and an ever-smiling face looked up to her in the darkness. "You were holding that doll. Where did you get it?" he asked.

She stared at it for a moment, analyzing the doll "Oh, that's right! I found it inside the hedgemaze."

"Do you know who it belongs to?"

She examined it carefully, taking in every detail. She shook her head. "No I don't. But... she seems so familiar to me..." she said then looked up at him.

"Its like something from your previous life...?" he suggested. Serafid looked away and sighed heavily. "Do you remember our deal?" he asked carefully, looking back at her.

She adjusted her position on the bed and looked at him for a moment and then spoke. "You mean, what happens after our marriage...?"

"Yes..."

"You.... intend to do it now...?" she asked. She cannot fully see his face in the darkness, but his voice told her that he was serious. She turned her face away from him.

"Yes."

"But...why?" she whispered in a barely audible voice.

He raised one hand and tucked a tuft of her hair behind her ears. "Even if it was a part of our deal, do you mean to tell me that if I do my share of it in advance, you won't do yours? You're not marrying me simply for that are you?" 

"Of course not!" she protested. "But..."

"You are afraid of what it might do to you?"

"Yes," she admitted.

"But still, forgive me... I have to take this risk. I have to do it... Please understand. It might just place you in a better position to decide if you want to go on with the ceremony tomorrow, before its too late. I won't hold it against you."

Dorothy looked away. "You still haven't told me why..."

"If you allow me to go on, then you will find your answers,"

"Is there no other way to it...?" she shook her head. "I suppose you're right. I cannot refuse you. I did not want to do this because I thought that it wasn't that important. That what matters is who I am now... but... I might only be fooling myself..." a brave look dawned on her eyes. "This perhaps will be the final test of my feelings for you..." she looked at him in the eye.

"Thank you for understanding..." he said.

His hands reached for her in the darkness.

They kissed.

¿¿* ! *??

Seravi walked through the hedgemaze. He turned left at the fork where his brother and him had parted ways, and now he's standing face to face with a very young little girl who had blonde hair, wearing cute pink clothes, and had a big bag on her back. She turned around.

"Who are you!?" she demanded. She went closer to him and towered over him.

The little Seravi then did not know what to do. So he held his spot and stared at the beautiful girl who was in front of him, eyeing him suspiciously.

"You don't seem like the ones who are after me. Judging from how you look, you must be the _gardener's son!" she said. Then she smiled sweetly, "Thank heavens." her tone suddenly changed, from utterly boisterous to heavenly saccharine. "I want to get out of here, please show me the way!" she pleaded with him._

"Errr.... ummm.... errr.... errr......" Seravi stammered, unable to get a word out.

"Come on, little boy. Let's get out of here, I want to get out of this place but I seem to have taken a wrong turn somewhere..." she said as she looked around where they were again. Her blonde hair then was 10 times shinier, 10 times shorter than how he had remembered.

"W-w-w-why?" he managed to croak out in an infinitesimal little voice.

"Huh?" she faced him once again, her golden locks bouncing after her. She had a confused look on her face.

"Why would you want to l-leave this place?" he asked, gaining momentum. "You're already rich! There are so many people around you waiting on you, ready to do anything for you! You could have anything, anything that you desired, you have all the world!!" he stepped forward.

"What about those who you will leave behind?!" he said with passion, thinking of himself if he was to be left behind by his brother. "Have you not thought of them? _Why?! **_How_ could you be **__so SELFISH!!!!" he exclaimed._

After the words left his mouth, he tasted its bitterness. He wanted to somehow take it back but knew that he could not. Those were the words that _should have been addressed to his brother but... he couldn't stop himself from throwing it out on her._

She did not speak for a while. He slowly looked up at her, assessing the damage.

Dorothy was shivering. Her head was bowed and her fists were clenched tightly. When she looked up at him there was only pure fury in her eyes. "_WHAT WOULD YOU KNOW YOU BRAT?!" she lashed out. Tears formed on the corner of her eyes. _

"I-I-mm s-ss..." he stammered, trying to apologize.

She turned a sideways a little, a shady look fell over her eyes. "I don't think you're old enough to understand this, but I'll tell you anyway..." she gave a deep sigh.

"This place is a _prison!_ You think all the world is mine?! Oh yeah? _You don't know how its like!_"

_Brother, you may not understand it yet. But we are prisoners of this place. _The voice of Serafid came to his head, it was the words of their last serious conversation together before they drifted apart.__

"Day in, day out, there are people around me. They train me, they say, but for what? I'm **_not_ happy with it, I don't **_think_** I'll ever be happy with it. I want to go to a school like all normal children do! I want the freedom that they have to choose how they want to live their life!"**

_What are all these education for, can you tell me? We are being trained to become someone, something, that we did not choose. Will we be happy? Will you be happy if you are forced to eat a bitter candy brother? Do we have to follow everything that our parents want us to do, even if it **will **make our tummy hurt?!_

"_I have a right to dream too! And by all means I want to follow that dream! I believe in _magic!_ I want to be the greatest magician in the world someday..."_

_And what about what we want to be? What about ourselves? Our own happiness? We are not merely extensions of their existence! We have a right to be ourselves, be different. We have a right to choose what candy we're going to eat!_

"And when I become the _greatest_ magician in the world, I'll know that I did it with my very own hands, not because of my lineage, not because of my wealth, but because of who I am, what I have innately. There can be no cheating in magic. I will finally be able to be proud of myself, _just because I am myself_. I will become the greatest magician in the world, and **not someone's _obedient, dutiful wife!!!!"_**

_I have a right to choose everything in my life. I have a right to choose my career someday, and whom I will love and marry! I do not to spend the rest of my life with some stranger that I have not even met! I don't care bout family relations! I will not be responsible for a wife, someone who I feel nothing for!!!! That candy isn't good!!!!_

And then they _both screamed._

Seravi covered his ears.

And when it was over, Seravi looked up to see the little Dorothy in a quite normal mood again.

"Boy that felt good..." Dorothy said, after taking a deep breath. Her voice changed from utterly melodramatic, to cheery and composed once again. "So! What do you say? Help me alright?" she gave him a sweet smile.

It was then that they heard Serafid's voice calling out to them, announcing that he had found the exit.

And that was how they met. And how he fell in love with her.

Seravi opened his eyes, now back from the land of dreams.

He got up mechanically and went outside the room.

He went outside the cottage and climbed the walls to the side. When he reached the rooftop, he raised his face as if a rooster who was about to crow.

He drew a deep breath.

"**_DOROTHY I LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!!"_ he screamed for the world to hear.**

He took a deep breath and went for it again "_DOROTHY!!!!_ I_ NEEEEEEEEEEEEEED _YOU!!!!!!!"

Cha-cha suddenly jerked awake and fell down on the floor. She scratched her head and wondered what had awakened her.

"_YOU CAN'T MARRY HIM DOROTHY!!!!!! **III''MMMM TTHHHHEEEE OOOONNNNNEEE FOOOOOOR YOOOOUUUUU!!!!!!!!!"he screamed on top of his lungs.**_

"What the?! Teacher Seravi!!!!" Cha-cha looked out the window and tried to see where he was.

"_DOOOOORRRRRROOOOOOOTTTTHHHHHHHYYYYYYYYY!!!! COME BACK TO ME HONEY!!!!!!!"_

"**Teacher Seeeraaaaaavvvviiiii!!!" Cha-cha screamed out to him. This time, a sleepy-eyed Seravi peeked from the roof.**

"Oh, hello there Cha-cha, goodmorning." he greeted as if nothing happened.

"What are you doing? What's going on?!" she asked.

"Oh, its just my daily declaration of love," he said unemotionally.

"Huh...?!?! But you never used to do that teacher!!" she protested.

Tears welled up in his eyes and he clenched his fists. "Yes, yes I know... _its been so long... It's been so long since _I've been so in love_... the memory of the pa---_no!_ The **_nightmare_ of my life is finally over... my _golden-haired ANGEL_ has come back..." he smiled as if in a dream. Tears were falling down his cheeks.**_

"Oh okay... but wait! She's _getting married_ to your brother today!!!"

Seravi fell face first into the ground.

"Yes!!! _I know!!!!!" he said with passion. "And I'll take her back somehow... I have to rescue her from that evil monster who holds her captive _(in his mind's eye, a picture of Dorothy, in the clutches of a red-eyed dragon-Serafid who was reaching out to him, calling him for help)_.. ohhh!! __Dorothy!! I promise I'll rescue __yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyooooooooooooooooooouuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!!!!" his voice reached the stars._

¿¿* *??

"Has he been like that since this morning?" Riya asked irritably as they went into Cha-cha and Seravi's bedroom to peek on him. 

Seravi was praying in front of a little shrine that he had made in one corner of the living room. In the middle of the altar was a stolen shot of Dorothy from yesterday's event. She still had her hair up in her head, and she was looking at something, oblivious to the cameraman.

Riya was snapping fingers in front of Seravi's eyes, but he was in a trance of some sort once again.

He was holding a lighted incense stick and was taking a bow every now and then, mumbling something.

"Yes... well, I'm glad that he's a lot quieter now, before you guys came for breakfast, he was on the roof screaming out Miss Dorothy's name," Cha-cha said.

"Yes we know, I think the damage in my ears is permanent," Riya said as he placed the icebag on his ear.

"Man, this is just so sad... I wonder if my good ear can still understand what he's saying..." Shiine said as he approached Seravi and listened more closely to what he's saying.

"What is he saying Shiine?" Cha-cha asked.

Shiine's eyes widened, he blushed, froze then fell down the floor. Riya had to slap him back in order to awaken him.

"Well, what did he say Shiine?" Cha-cha asked again once he came to.

"Ah-ha-ha-ha," Shiine said, laughing lamely. "I didn't hear a thing.... nope, not a thing!" he said.

"You're such a goody two-shoes," Riya said.

They went outside the room.

"Well..." Cha-cha said, taking a deep breath. "What are we going to do now?"

"What do you mean Cha-cha?" Riya asked.

"About Miss Dorothy's upcoming wedding... Its later today isn't it? What are we going to do?"  
  


"She doesn't even remember us Cha-cha," Shiine said, a far-off look clouding his eyes. "And we won't be able to sneak into the palace again,"

"That's it! We sneak into the palace!" Riya said.

"Didn't you hear me?!?!" Shiine flashed a peeved look at Riya who was still holding an icebag to his ear. Shiine crossed his arms on his chest. "Even if we sneak in side there... what can we do?" Shiine retorted. "The last time that we got too close to her, she had an attack of some sort... She was really in pain..."

A momentarily silence descended upon them.

"And lets not forget, I'm sure that Serafid will be by her side, and from the looks of it, Serafid is more powerful than Seravi," Shiine said in his calculating pose.

"How can you say that?! Nobody's stronger than my Teacher!" Cha-cha said.

"As much as I'd like to agree with you, we have to face the truth..." Shiine replied.

"Ohhh..." Cha-cha said, and looked down the floor. "But still! We can't leave Teacher Dorothy the way that she is!" she said.

"That's right! I sort of missed her fights with Seravi! When they almost used to kill each other, whooo it was so cool!!!" Riya blurted out, cheering some sorts.

"Riya!!!" Shiine and Cha-cha said in unison.

"What?"

"What if she's being manipulated by Serafid? What if she's going go through with the ceremony against her will?" Shiine suddenly thought.

"Yeah! A shotgun wedding!!!" Riya suggested.

"That's horrible! We have to save her!!!" Cha-cha exclaimed.

"That's right! I must get back my teacher!!!!" Shiine cheered, joining in.

"Alright let's go!!!!" Cha-cha said, they marched towards the door and opened it.

And they suddenly stopped in their tracks, their eyes wide with surprise.

¿¿* *??

"Alright... I'm done praying to all the gods in the world," Seravi said as he got up from his praying position. "Whooo, that took longer than I thought. With their divine blessing... hehehehehe... now for plan---"

"Teacher Seravi!!!" Cha-cha screamed from the living room.

He dashed out of his room and went to the living room.

He stopped in his running, there standing outside the door was his very own goddess!!

"Dorothy!!" he screamed out, opening his arms and lunging for her. "That was faster than I thought, the gods must really like the offering that I g---"

He stopped in midair as his eyes saw Serafid who was standing at quite a distance away near their helicopter. He was holding a sniper rifle in his arms, ready to fire.

The red dot that the aiming laser in Serafid's gun found and stayed at the spot between Seravi's eyes. Seravi composed himself and started to act civilized.

"Hello Seravi," Dorothy greeted. "Please excuse my unannounced arrival, there was no time to tell you in advance," she said apologetically.

"That's.... fine... errr.... Darl--, _I mean_, Dorothy," he said thankful that he stopped himself in time.

Serafid's eyes narrowed.

"And please excuse Serafid, he strongly refused to come too near to you." she looked apologetically at the red dot in his forehead. "I understand that you had... _issues_ left unsettled," she shook her head and smiled bitterly. "Anyhow, I came here to give you this," she said, handing Seravi a lumpy brown package.

Their hands came in contact with each other at the side of the package.

Dorothy smiled sweetly, then tried to pull her hands back gently.

Seravi didn't let go. "Dorothy," he whispered, bubbles forming in their background. "We can go and runaway, right now, just you and me..."

"I..." Dorothy said, clearly surprised.

"We could be happy! We'll be together, just like you promised..."

A mysterious shine appeared in Dorothy's eyes. She did not pull her hands away, she continued to look at him unmoving.

Suddenly a bullet hit the wall, centimeters away from Seravi's head.

Seravi dropped his hands immediately.

Dorothy didn't even look back at the shooter. She smiled and continued speaking as if nothing happened. "You'd find Elizabeth, and your invitation to our wedding later this day inside. Please come and try not to be late," she said. Then she paused.

"Seravi... I thank you for your offer," her eyes were shining. "But I am already happy," she said truthfully. She bowed her head and turned around.

She looked back at him one last time as she came close to Serafid. She gave a tiny mysterious smile, as Serafid helped her get up in the helicopter.

And then just like that, she flew away.

Cha-cha, Shiine and Riya who had been eavesdropping from inside the cottage, smart enough to keep out of it, came out and looked at him.

Seravi had a peaceful almost content expression on his face.

"Teacher...?" Cha-cha said reluctantly.

"What's inside the package Seravi?" Riya asked.

"Oh this? Let's see..." Seravi said as he casually opened the brown package. Sure enough, Elizabeth was there, instead of the black dress that she wore when the last time that Seravi held her, she now wore a white wedding gown. And she still smiled as always.

"Elizabeth..." Seravi said as he hugged the doll.

Shiine took the four cards inside and examined it. "These are invitation for the wedding, we're VIP's," he exclaimed, his eyes wide with happiness.

"Wow!! Really?!" Cha-cha cheered. 

"Yeah!!!" Riya said as he and Cha-cha danced around each other, cheering for their luck.

"So what does it say eh, eh??" Riya said as they pored over the exquisitely hand-maid invitation card. They went back inside the house and left Seravi to his thoughts.

Seravi remained standing where Dorothy had left him until the sun had finally set.

¿¿* *??

The wedding was set at night. It was held in the lawn behind Dorothy's parent's mansion, there was not a light visible coming from inside the large establishment. This night the whole place was transformed.

The moon was full and was shining with its full potential. The only other source of light in the place were soft different colored lanterns, some floating in the lake, some hung from trees, and fireflies trapped in large bottles set at strategic positions along the place and at the center of black tables where they will eat.

Every now and then a scent would scatter into the air, through the blooming flora that were arranged throughout the place.

The site where the actual wedding was to take place was the most exquisitely designed of all.

The benches were the people would sit on were colored darkly, on its edges it glowed a soft warm yellow color. The aisle where the bride will walk was lined with cloth made out of pure gold and black velvet sheets. And scattered randomly on the cloth were petals of a white flower.

Before the altar, on the floor where the bride and groom were to stand, were several markings that glowed. It was said that they were seals of goodluck and security. It was also said that once the bride and groom had stepped inside, no one else can ever stop the ceremony.

The men were all required to dress in black tuxedos or formal wears, and they all blended in well with the night. The women on the other hand were asked to dress in shades of gold or green. There were no bridesmaids. Only the bride herself was to dress in white.

Those who did not dress to match the color code were not allowed to enter. 

"They prepared well... I feel like I'm in a _fairytale_..." Shiine said as he leisurely played with his champagne bottle that contained water (as he was still too young to drink). He was walking around the lawn looking around for any sign of impending trouble. (Also, he was looking for Cha-cha who he hasn't seen all evening. He was quite excited to see her all dressed up in formal wear complete with--). Suddenly, he bumped into a lady whose face was almost completely covered by her golden hair.

"_Wha--?_ I, I'm sorry Madam," Shiine said as he bowed his head and assessed if there was any damage done.

"What the..? _Shiine...? Is that you?" the 'Madam' said._

Shiine blushed, "I know that voice! Cha--Cha-cha?! Is that.... _is that you?!_" he asked bewildered, he tried to look at her in the face. 

The green-dressed lady turned her head in time with Shiine's turning to avoid a full show of her face.

"H-ha, haha, oh young man you are quite mistaken!!" Cha-cha said in a voice that was trying to be mature but was obviously hers. "Nice seein' ya, bye then!" she said as she dashed through the crowd and away from him.

"W-wait!" Shiine said and then ran after her.

¿¿* *??

"Hmmmm..." someone's voice said. He got there somehow, somewhere, and he was planning to put an end to the madness.

He one was with the shadows of the room. All dressed in black, all devoid of color, (he carefully tucked in all strands of his hair behind his ninja costume) except for his emerald green eyes.

Two patrolling guards passed through. No problem, he wasn't noticed.

After this and that, he reached his destination. He stood outside the large double doors and opened them.

"I've been expecting you..." greeted a voice from inside as he got in.

Their eyes met, green against green.

"Let's finish it why don't we," he said, his voice unwavering.

"Of course, but do me a favor and hurry up, I don't want to keep my bride waiting..."

"She is not your bride you _freak_, she's betrothed to me."

"Oh really, on what grounds does your claim lay? She was betrothed to me first you _vile-scumbag-pathetic-excuse-for-a-brother!!_ I abhor the fact that we're related!!" he said, his voice ever arrogant.

"You're not the only one. Why, those childhood memories where you used to run around only in your underwear traumatized my young brain!!"

"Gah, what are you talking about?! You pervert!!!! You're the one who caused me nightmares! You were walking around with poop drooping from your diapers! And you always used to pull my hair!!! Dorothy must never be with the likes of you! Well it doesn't matter, after this night, she'll be mine... forever~!! We'll have little blonde-haired kids running around the lawn---"

"Ahhhhh, _shut up!!!!! You've done something to her haven't you?! I'll never forgive you!"_

"I don't need your forgiveness. All I need is for you to get out of my life!"

"Enough talk. I will get Dorothy. Let's do it,"

"She will never be yours. But do try, let's see if you'll succeed..."

darkness

¿¿* *??

Even before the actual reception, the people were allowed to eat. This opportunity was taken up, and of course abused by Riya.

All sorts of expensive and exotic dishes were at the table and was being refilled every few seconds after Riya sweeps them all in one stroke.

"Hmmm... where's Cha-cha..?" he said in between swallowing. "She's missing out on all the food!" Riya said as he gobbled down more food on the buffet table. His black suit was stained with a variety of food scrubs.

"Wait! Stop right there! _Cha-cha!_" Shiine called out as he chased the lovely black dressed woman who refused to show her face.

"What the? Was that Cha-cha?!" Riya said, he blushed for a moment, looked at his food, and then without a hesitation, ran after them.

¿¿* *??

After a while of idleness, someone in the crowd announced, "The wedding's about to start!".

The people started to gather and took their seats and waited for the ceremony to begin.

The priest appeared in front and stood there dignified, waiting for the bride and groom.

Some of the fireflies around the site were released and they lighted the aisle, waiting for the bride to pass.

The groom appeared at the end of the aisle, unnoticed.

The Orchestra began to play a soft calming music with the flute and the violin. Its melodies somewhat resemble the bridal march, only this was a mellower, more calm and not hurried version.

A black veil was lifted from the end of the aisle, there stood the bride in her full whiteness.

The fireflies started to hover around the bride, showing the details of her exquisite hand-made gown.

She stood there with dignity, the only whiteness among the dark void of the place. She had a veil on her face that had fine, translucent cloth. Her blonde hair was gathered to from on top of her head, crowned with a tiara that glittered with a thousand diamonds.

Her white-gloved hand held a bouquet of white roses that were laced with small glittering jewels at the stalks.

She started to walk, slowly and surely. 

She kept her eyes down the whole time. 

She looked like pure spirit walking among the ranks of the undead.

Everyone marveled at her beauty.

Her train spread down the trail after her. It shimmered in the moonlight like a silver river.

The groom stared in stunned silence at her bride. He smiled bitterly. Tears welled up at the corners of his eyes, but he was quick to blink them away.

After what seemed like eternity, the bride arrived at his side. She looked at him sideways, never meeting his eyes, and gave a mysterious smile.

They stepped inside the sealed altar.

The Priest opened his bible and laid his hands on top of its page. The marriage that would join the two great families has begun.

"Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today..."

The groom looked at his bride, her beauty was beyond compare. He was elated. But a nagging thought was bothering him at the back of his mind, telling him there was _something_ wrong.

"... speak now or forever hold your peace...."

At that moment, the groom held his breath.

After the priest went on, and nobody protested, the groom let out a large sigh.

The ceremony went on. They came to the point where they faced each other and were to exchange their vows. He took her right hand.

"I take you, Dorothy, to be my lawfully wedded wife, to love and to serve..."

She kept her eyes down, a smile forming on her lips.

She would not look at him. He frowned. The voice of the nagging thought was now a little bit stronger, but its message still cannot seem to get through.

She gently took his right hand and proceeded to insert the ring in his ringfinger.

"I take you, Sera**_vi_--**"

Seravi jerked his hand away. His were eyes wide with surprise.

The bride stopped speaking.

"..._what did you say...?" he asked her suspiciously._

Silence descended upon them, the orchestra stopped playing.

"_Ohh... did I, did I say something wrong?" she raised her hand and covered her mouth. _

"You called me _Seravi... How did you... how did you know it was ****__me?!"_

The priest slammed the bible shut and stared at the two with disbelief.

"Huh, huh? Oh, I didn't say a thing... **_hohoho..._**"

Seravi fished out a big halogen light from his pocket and pointed it to the bride.

"**_Ohhh my god!!!!!!__" he cried_ outloud. "_Not _****you!!!!! **NOOOO!!!!!"****

'Dorothy's face contorted into a wicked smile. "Hahaha, its too late, you can't get out of this seal.... _We will be man and... wife! _Hohohohohoho!!!" Doris declared and ended with her classic signature laugh. Then she turned to the priest and said in a sweet voice. "Please continue father,"

¿¿* *??

"Cha-cha... stop running!" Shiine cried outloud to her. "We're missing the wedding!!" They've been chasing each other every since he spotted her earlier.

Cha-cha stopped in her tracks.

"Oh yes, that's right!! Ohh, no!!!! We have to go back!" Cha-cha made a sharp about face and bumped into Riya.

"Huh?! Hey you_ smell good!!! Hey you __look good!!!" Riya said as he held on to the woman who bumped into him. "Hey, its really Cha-cha!!!" he puckered up his lips for a kiss._

Then a big bonk was heard as Shiine hit Riya's head with a big fist that he materialized.

"You lousy dog! I knew that you were _more perverted _than me!!!" Shiine said as he dematerialized the weapon he used.

"Why you, why'd you spoil my moment!!" Riya said as he got up.

"Stop it you guys!" Cha-cha said. "Or else I'll change back to my old clothes!" she threatened.

They behaved immediately and were immediately buddy-buddies again.

At the silence of the moment, two suspicious shadowy figures moved across the lawn and entered the hedgemaze.

"Hurry up, you old coot! Do you want to be late for our only daughter's wedding?!" a familiar female's voice said called out to the second figure.

"I'm coming, I'm coming, alright..." the other suspicious figure replied to the call.

"Huh?!" Cha-cha and the gang said as they stared at the suspicious figures disappear with the shadows.

"Did I just hallucinate?" Cha-cha asked Shiine who was still looking at them.

"I know that voice... It's the voice of Miss Dorothy's parents!!!" Shiine declared.

"Huh, but where are they going? The altar's that way!!" Cha-cha cried outloud.

"Something's up, let's follow them!" Shiine suggested.

"Right on!" Riya cheered, transforming into a wolf and leading the way.

After a while of walking in the dark, they came upon a secret gathering that was held at the middle of the hedgemaze.

A few candles were lit around the place, and there were only 7 people there.

They hid in the bushes and surveyed the situation.

"There's a woman dressed in white standing with a man... wait a minute! That's Dorothy!!" Riya said outloud.

"What?! How could that be..." Shiine cried.

"Shhhh!! Keep quiet you guys, they might hear us!!" Cha-cha said in an obvious scolding voice.

The three were pulled suddenly plucked from the bushes.

"What the?!" Riya protested.

"Shiine, Cha-cha, Riya! Is that you?" Dorothy asked. The attention of all those gathered there were fully turned to them.

Serafid dropped the two boys roughly but carefully placed Cha-cha on the ground. "Its just them three, were you followed?" he asked.

"What is this? Is that you Teacher? What are you doing here?" Shiine asked as he got up and tidied himself.

Dorothy who was only wearing a simple white dress without any glamour nor glitter. She was also holding a bunch of wildflowers.

She smiled. "I'm amazed you found this place. This is where the true ceremony will take place," she said. "Serafid knew that his brother would do anything to stop the wedding... so... you see..." she said, looking apologetic. "We had to fool everyone..."

"Wow! That's so smart!!" Riya said.

"So only close families are here..." Shiine said as he looked at the other remaining people.

"Yes, my parents and Serafid's parents," Dorothy said as she pointed to the happy looking couple over the other side of the lawn. The woman looked quite sickly. And the man was none other but the older version of Seravi/Serafid.

"Now that you're done explaining, can we proceed with the true ceremony, please, Dorothy?" Serafid requested.

"Yes, alright," Dorothy answered. They took their place in front of the priest.

"But then, then, who was the bride there?!" Cha-cha asked.

"Oh?" Dorothy said, looking back at them. "My sister was more than happy to take my place..." she said, smiling a bit.

"And the Serafid..."  
  


"Who else but the idiot who looks like me..." Serafid said. Someone in the background coughed. "Sorry mother," he added.

"Oh..." Riya said.

Realization dawned upon them.

"_Oh my **god!!!!** We've got to stop it!!! _Ewwww!!!_" Shiine said. He turned to his side and tried his best not to vomit._

"What?! I don't want to live with a person who's not sure about its gender!!! Waaaaahhhh!!!" Cha-cha cried. Her eyes were all teary with disgust.

"You cannot stop it. Once they enter the sealed altar, they cannot leave until the ceremony goes through and is finished. I placed a seal there exactly for that purpose, that is, they won't be able to leave that place unless they have been declared man and wife. That's Seravi's punishment for trying to spoil the occasion... _again_." Serafid said arrogantly.

"And it was a little harsh," Dorothy said, somewhat regretting it. A frown formed on her head.

"But, but we can't just leave him be! I don't want to live with that... that _thing!!!!"_

"You can try if you like," Serafid said. He turned to his bride, "Dorothy..." he said suggestively.

She smiled at him. "Yes, let us continue with our ceremony."

Suddenly there was large explosion.

"What was that?" Dorothy's mother asked.

They looked up at the sky and sure enough there was a large wave of energy that was coming from the site of the fake wedding.

"My god_... Did he... did he break the seal?!" Serafid asked with disbelief. "At least we're still a little bit safe, he does not know that we're getting married here, so come on! Let's get on with it!"_

"Yes, please hurry Father," Dorothy requested.

They turned to the priest and went on.

¿¿* *??

"This is the limit of my patience with you Doris." Seravi said, his eyes dark with fury. "I have tried to tolerate you out of respect for your sister who I so love with my every being," His hair was flying up and pure energy was resonating from his body.

"But I will take no more. I will not stand for any of your **_stupid_ tricks again. Answer me this one question falsely and I will not hesitate to grant you eternal peace,"**

"Y-Y-You're not k-ki-kidding are you...? B-but Seravi... why can't you just..."

"_Now!!!" he screamed at him. "You thing! **Tell me where Dorothy and Serafid is!"**_

"Waaaahhhh! They-they're inside the h-h-hedgemaze!!! They're getting married there right now! They're probably done with their ceremony already... its probably too late..." 

"**_Never!!!_" Seravi cried as he was gone in a flash.**

"But _Seeeerrrraaaaaaaavvvvviiiiiii!!!!" he cried, his beautiful wedding dress all but torn to pieces. His wig and fell from his head along with his beautiful expensive tiara._

He stood up and tore the other garments of his dress away.

"I won't give you up!" he cried. "_Never!_" he said as he picked himself up and ran off somewhere.

¿¿* *??

In an instant, Seravi appeared behind them.

"You cheater," he said to Serafid.

Serafid did not turn around. "What now? Won't you let the priest finish his sentence? He was about to declare us man and wife. But then again that does not matter now does it?" He turned to Dorothy and lifted her veil, then leaned in to kiss her lips.

Serafid was suddenly thrown away from her.

"_Serafid!!" Dorothy screamed. She picked up her dress and tried to run after him._

"**_Away!!!_" Seravi told her. "Move away, _please_, Dorothy and take the children. If you come between us now you will only end up hurting yourself, and you will only injure us more."**

"He's right Dorothy, please go away, get out of the hedgemaze." Serafid said as he got back on his feet. He looked at Dorothy's parents and nodded for them to take her.

Dorothy's parents grabbed her and started running away. Cha-cha and the others materialized their brooms and started flying to safety.

Serafid and Seravi's father took her mute protesting, frail wife in his arms and also ran away.

"Finally, a fair fight. I got quite suspicious that I beat you so easily in your room before... who was that? Your doppelganger?" Seravi said.

"Of course, how you underestimate me little brother..."

"I am neither little nor your brother anymore, did you not break the blood ties between us yourself long ago?"

"Oh yes, but the true resolve will come now,"

"Yes, and enough talk, let's do it,"

They closed their eyes, a lazy light green haze enveloped them both.

"W-what are they doing?" Cha-cha asked as she looked back to them.

"They look like they're meditating..." Riya commented.

Dorothy stopped struggling from her father's grasp, realization dawned on her face. She screamed out, "No... _Serafid, Seravi don't do it!!!_" she screamed.

But it was already too late... the lazy green haze had turned into a burning aura. The group could see more clearly now that the two of them had been chanting incantations.

"They're summoning." A voice from behind them said.

They turned around to see Sherwin the referee on the scene.

"Hey its you!!" The trio greeted.

"Of course, I never miss a magical match!" he said with a smile. 

"What do you mean they're summoning? Summoning who?" Shiine asked.

"They're calling on divine deities to fight for them. They're almost done, you'd see the deities' physical form soon..." he said.

"They're getting brighter..." Cha-cha said as she shielded her eyes.

"We'd better get out of here..." Riya suggested.

And then Seravi opened his eyes. He raised his hands and said to Serafid, "_Come forth and defeat my vile kinsmen_, **_Witch of Urizuri mountain!!_**" 

And then a black cloud appeared behind Seravi, marking the arrival of the summoned deity. From the haze of black came forth the giant pink-haired witch!!

Her violet skirt flowed after her. The star ornament hanging from her pointed hat flew in the wind. She had her arms crossed in front of her face and she slowly opened her gray eyes.

Cha-cha and the others fell to the ground. "What the? He's going to use Miss Dorothy?!" Cha-cha commented.

"_Hahahahahahaha!!_" the summoned deity "Witch of Urizuri mountain" laughed. "I won't show any mercy! Prepare to witness my true power!!!" she said in perfect imitation of the pink-haired witch.

Seravi was on the ground, holding a joystick and projecting the words that his deity said.

Serafid opened his eyes and saw Seravi's deity. He frowned in distaste, "You would continue to haunt my beloved Dorothy by showing her these?! I cannot _condone_ this! You will pay!" He raised his hand.

"_Come to me and defend my just cause!_ **_Blonde Child!!!_**" he said. Then from Serafid's back, white clouds formed. And from the white mass, appeared the giant version of the young blonde-haired Dorothy!

Her glittering curled-up blonde hair was moving with the wind. Her costume was complete in every detail from her pink shoes, to her pink laced dress, to the red ribbon on top of her head. 

"_You!!!_" The "Blonde Child" spoke. "I will not forgive such blasphemy to my beautiful hair!! You will be annihilated!!" she said as she raised her hands into the air gathered her powers.

"_Ummm..._ hah! Ice needles materialize!" she said as sharp pointed ice materialized in the air and darted to the "Witch of Urizuri Mountain".

"_Ohh no!! _How can you possibly make me fight with myself!! I can't defile her!!!" the "Witch of Urizuri" mountain said. "Look at her, she's just so cute!!!" she added as she slapped the ice needles away and dodged some of them in a half-brained manner. Seravi was absolutely mooning over the Blonde Child, his childhood urges coming back. 

"Isn't she the cutest?!" Seravi thought as he stared at the giant Blonde Child.

"Well that's too bad, because I won't hesitate to distort you!" The "Blonde Child" said. "Let's see if you can take this! _Lightning Bolt from the heaven's descend and electrocute her!!_" she said.

Then big electric bolts shot down from the heavens and unto the "Witch of Urozori Mountain", making her jump from one place to another in a pitiful dance for her life.

¿¿* *??

Meanwhile, down on the ground.

Cha-cha and the others were cheering for Seravi.

"Go Teacher Seravi!! Don't give up!!" Cha-cha said.

"What a lame fight!! Why can't you almost kill each other like Seravi and Dorothy does whenever they fight?!" Riya said.

"Yeah go! My teacher—uhh," Shiine cheered, then he suddenly realized that the true Dorothy was right behind them. He turned around to look at her.

Dorothy was looking up at the two deities, watching the two Dorothy's fight each other. There was a blank look in her eyes.

"Mi-Miss Dorothy?" Shiine asked as he reluctantly approached her.

Dorothy continued to be in her state of unreceptiveness. Her eyes were fixated on the "Witch of Urizuri Mountain" and little by little the shine in her eyes came back.

"... pink... pink h..air..." she said in her trance.

"Dorothy dear?" Her mother asked her.

"... pink, pink hair..."

_flash_

_"I don't want to talk to somebody who's got weird pink hair on her head!!" _

_-----------------zztt_

_"... at least my hair isn't **green**. You **never** fail to **ruin** my day!!!!!!!!!!"_

_------------------zzzzztttt_

_"Have I ever bothered to tell you that it's not **normal** to talk to a doll?"_

_-------------------zzzzzzzzzzttttttttttt_

_"I want my title... **Give me back my title!!! **Come on Seravi, we're going to have a magical match!!!"_

_"I don't want to fight you Dorothy... I **love** you too much..."_

"That's ridiculous! Ok fine! The only time that you'll fight me is if you don't like me anymore correct?! Ummmm... uhhh!!!"

pink flowing hair as far as the eyes can see

"Miss Dorothy?!" Shiine asked, getting more worried.

"**_No!!!!_** **Stop** _it!!!_" she suddenly exclaimed. "_Stop it, stop it, stop it!!!!_" she fell to her knees. But her woes were out of earshot of the two who were fighting there.

"Dear Daughter!!" her mother said as she went to her aid.

"_I have blonde hair!!_ My hair is blonde! _My-hair-is-blonde-my-hair-is-blonde-my-hair-is-blonde!!!_" she started chanting.

"Hey... I think her screw finally turned loose..." Riya commented as looked at her.

"Miss Dorothy!" they tried to call out to her.

"_Its just like Serafid said!!_ ..._hairisblondemyhairisblondemyhairisblonde..._"

"Dorothy dear! _Stop it!!!"_ her mother called out to her. She shook her body and tried to face her.

"...blonde...blonde...blonde...hair!!!!" she remained out of reach. She closed her eyes and tears started to fall.

¿¿* *??

Back at the battle field, the "Witch of Urizuri Mountain" was losing. By now, the Blonde Child was using her face as a punching bag. Seravi was looking blankly at the Blonde Child in utter bliss.

"Ahhh... she's so cute even when she's angry!!" he said amidst the direct hits in the face that his deity was getting.

And then suddenly... a cry resounded to them.

_"S...Seravi... Serafid... my sons..."_

They stopped fighting. The deities stopped moving.

The two of them looked to where the voice came from to see their frail mother standing, with difficulty on her own.

"M...mother..." Seravi said.

"Selena_! You can speak again!_" their father said, coming to her side.

"No... more... please do not fight anymore... My sons..." she said with difficulty, she then fell on her knees.

"Mother..." Serafid said. They both dropped their joysticks and went to her side.

The two deities suddenly stopped moving and then disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

"I was... so... so sad... my sons were fighting each other... And they weren't together anymore... Serafid went away to far off land. And then Seravi too... and never returned..." Selena confessed to their sons.

After such a long time, the family was assembled again, close together like this... as they had been once before.

"I'm sorry mother... I..." Seravi tried to say.

"No... its alright..." she said as she touched Seravi's cheek.

"Yes of course its alright," Serafid said with spite. "You're her _favorite son!_ I was just second place!" he stood up.

"No!! Its _not_ true..." Selena protested. She tried to stand up to reach Serafid. "Its because I couldn't see my sons together... Its because they fought each other... that's why... I couldn't speak... I couldn't call them anymore... because they won't come... And it was our fault... because we arranged your lives for you... our sins... pulled you apart... Could never forgive myself..."

"Oh Selena..." her husband said.

"M-mother..." Seravi said as tears fell down her cheek. Serafid looked away and tried to suppress his own.

"I'm glad... I can see both of my sons again... grown up... but no more fighting... the woman you love... why not let her decide? And whoever she does not choose... do not hate the other..." she suggested. 

The two brothers looked at each other. Now with the tie on Serafid's hair gone, his hair came was spread out and he looked like Seravi more than ever.

"You... bound by blood... so please... please end this..."

"That's right my sons," their father said. "Please do not let the line of our kin end this way. Listen to your mother, for the last time... It is, I think, the best way..."

"Brother..." Seravi started, looking at Serafid. "If you agree... let's end this..."

Serafid frowned and looked at the pleading eyes of her mother. He sighed and frowned. "I can never forgive you for taking her away..." Serafid said to him.

"I did not take her away!" Seravi said. "I followed her..."

"And because of that she learned to love you more!" he returned. "I spent all those years studying in a foreign land, all by myself, because I thought that when I returned, she'd be there... And that she was waiting for me..."

"I..." Seravi said.

"But I should have known better... I _should have_ stayed by her side!! That's what you did isn't it?! That's why she grew fonder of you. You said she promised to marry you? That's because I wasn't there and she had no idea of what 'marrying' was then! You took her away from me..."

"Its not my fault that you were unable to keep your ties together!" Seravi retorted to him. "You said I stole her away from you, fine! She may have felt something for you before she felt something for me... But is it my fault that _you never reinforced your feelings for her?_ That _you **never** told her that you **loved** her_ and you just assumed she understood! _I proclaimed my love to her everyday!_" he proclaimed, for the first time, serious about his feelings. "That was, before she got ugly," he added.

"And whose fault do you think it is that she dyed her hair in the first place?! And even with a slight change of appearance you condemned her and shoved her away! That is not love!! You only loved her because she was beautiful!!"

"That's not the only reason why I loved her!!" Seravi said. "I just couldn't say it... because... how else was I supposed to explain the grounds of my love? I could say I loved her because she was beautiful... but after then... what was I supposed to say? Since I can't give a valid reason... I started teasing her... I..." he tried to say... having difficulty to explain what he never said to anyone before.

"_You're just making excuses!_ You could never really love her when her hair is pink! You're just one of the countless man that would fall victim to the curse that runs down her veins, the countless men whose attracted only to her physical form. Stray away from the picture of perfection and the 'love' that you felt would suddenly just fly away, am I right?" Serafid said. 

"And I suppose you can love her even when her hair is pink?!" Seravi asked him.

"_Well of course I can!!_"

**"And so do I!!!**"

A silence descended upon them. The look in both their eyes were determined and calmer now. After airing out their hurts, they have now come to conclude what they should do.

"Lets go to her," Serafid said.

And they began walking.

¿¿* *??

Dorothy's condition has not improved though.

Riya teased her. "Hey Dorothy! Can you say 'blonde'?" he asked, hovering over her.

"... blonde... blonde... blonde..." she saida and continued chanting.

"Wow! See! She can still talk!" Riya exclaimed.

"Stop making fun of my teacher!" Shiine said as he hit Riya's head.

"Ohhh my daughter, my daughter my daughter," Dorothy's mother exclaimed as she cried out to her. She was already crying and was desperate in trying to reach her.

Seravi and Serafid entered the scene.

They saw Dorothy sitting on the floor, all intellect gone from her mind.

"What, what happened here?!" Seravi asked as they rushed to her side.

"She cracked, plain and simple," Riya said. In a second he had four broken bones.

"Its your fault! Bring my daughter back to normal!" her father demanded.

"Serafid!! What's happening to her..." Seravi asked him as he looked at her catatonic eyes.

Serafid leaned to her. "Dorothy...? Dorothy Darling, look at me, look at me..." he said as he tried to meet her eyes. He placed his two fingers on her forehead and began to call her to come out from her trance.

"S... S..." Dorothy tried to say. But no words came out.

"_Allow me to put her out of her misery_," a voice from behind them said.

They all looked behind to see Doris pointing a gun on Dorothy.

"_Doris!!_" Her mother said.

"Well don't act so surprised mother, she had it coming," he said, there was something different about the way that he spoke and looked at everyone. He had ceased to mimic a woman's voice, and he still wore the tattered wedding dress, all hidden muscles bulging out.

"My life was going _fine_ until she came back again. In fact, I was planning to marry Serafid in place of Seravi. I figured I could do with him... And then she just had to come back waltzing with her blonde hair," he said.

"So that's why you forced me to come with you on that island... And the helicopter breaking down..." Serafid recalled. He felt as if he could throw up.

"_Ewwww..._" Cha-cha and the others said under their breath.

"Well that's the past. Now is now. The two of you, move away from her, slowly, or else she'll get it..." he ordered.

"_Never!!!_" The two of them said in unison as they embraced her body more.

"Martyr to the end huh? _Fine_, this bullet will go through your bodies and hit her anyway, I didn't pay top price for nothing..." he said.

"Doris! The _inhumanity!_ She is your own blood! Why?!" their mother demanded, she was shivering from anger.

"Everybody knows 'why' mother, or are you still trying to deny it? I will never change... my feelings for Seravi will never change. Now if I won't have him, I will make sure that she doesn't either. It's the least I could do," he said, he was beyond reasoning now.

"I was actually planning to do it on the day of engagement, because I didn't trust that things would go the way that they planned it to be, that is, that Dorothy gets married to Serafid leaving Seravi to me. I had planned to kill her from the beginning, but couldn't do it because Serafid was always hanging around her, giving her new memories, erasing her past. So, I waited... My chance came when she went inside the hedgemaze all alone during the engagement party... but he appeared," he said, pointing to Seravi. "So I couldn't do it... So she should be quite thankful because I at least gave her more time..."

"I knew we couldn't trust you..." Riya said as her barked at him.

"I don't care. Well, so now that the explanation's over, the shooting begins... I'll count to three then shoot. One..."

The two brothers held her more tightly, not caring for their lives.

"Two..."

"_Stop this madness Doris!!!_" Her father commanded.

"Give it up, I won't listen to whatever you say... Three!"

"_Wait, sister!_" a female voice said. It was Dorothy.

Seravi and Serafid looked at her.

Her eyes were open now and she was back to normal. She smiled a little. "Thank you for protecting me, but please let me go now," she requested.

"Dorothy..." Serafid said.

"I understand my sister... Its alright..." she said.

"_No!!_ We can't allow you to die..." Seravi said.

"Would you be able to live knowing that the woman you loved belonged to another?" she asked logically.

"Well I..." Seravi said.

"Its better this way... so please," she said as she removed their hold on her and started walking to Doris.

"Smart move sister!" Doris praised.

"Be quick with it," she said.

"No problem. Don't worry, I'll follow after you... but let's not do it here, it'll get too damn messy. Let's go somewhere else... start walking." Doris ordered.

"Alright," Dorothy agreed, and she started to walk towards him.

When she was almost face to face with Doris, a glint fell on Doris eyes.

Serafid saw this, and then...

Everything seemed to slow down.

doris       pulled       the       trigger     of       his       gun

"**_Nooo!!_**"

Dorothy's blonde locks flew up into the air.

She         fell        to          the         ground

White       dress       stained     with                   _blood_

"_Dorothy!!!!!!_" Seravi screamed as he went to her.

The smoke cleared.

Serafid lay in her arms, gasping, he took the bullet for her. Blood was flowing out from his lower chest.

"_Serafid!!_" Dorothy cried out in a barely audible, her eyes went blank.

"Se...ravi..." Serafid strained to talk. "Hur...ry... protect her..." he struggled to get out.

Doris realized he didn't get her. He pointed it again to Dorothy's head, who was in plain sight.

Seravi       reached     out       to       touch       Dorothy

He                grasped                 her               arm

Another shot rang out.

The moon hid behind the clouds, enveloping them in darkness.

When the moonlight finally shone again, they saw Serafid lying on the ground bleeding profusely from his wound.

Doris pulling the trigger over and over again, but hitting only the soil.

And Dorothy and Seravi were nowhere to be seen.

¿¿*!!!*??

I'm sorry for the long delay. This and that delayed it. Well the truth was I had a major WRITER'S BLOCK. Oh well, at least the wait was worth it! Well I... I hope this chapter's 'fine'.

Anyway, I'm proud to say that there is only one last chapter left!!!!

The conclusion is coming soon! Please bear with me for one more!!!


	9. Memories of Pink

¿¿?? Author's notes : Well, here it is, the 'last chapter'. I am so sorry it took this long. No, it wasn't because of a writer's block. To be honest there was a huge part of me that didn't want to finish this fic at all, because when you bring a certain story to a conclusion, your journey as its author ends... and all that sentimental nonsense. Well.. I had to finish it.. Here you go, enjoy. Its long. I hope I've pulled all loose ends together.   
And Emmalyn, I sure hope you appreciate this.

¿ Pinked Memories ?

¿ Chapter Nine Memories of Pink ?

(¿1?)

Serafid opened his eyes. He became aware of the loud buzzing noise that was all around him. He groggily turned his head to left and looked out the window. They were passing through clouds.

"_Ah, so you're finally awake_," a voice beside him said.

He turned to look at the one who spoke. His heart skipped a beat when he saw her.

She was seated comfortably on her side of the helicopter. She rested her head on the soft fur-covered backseat. Her eyes were fixed on him steadily, there was even a playful shine to it.

"You're such a sleepy head you know, you've been sleeping for 2 hours straight now," she said in a curious voice.

Serafid frowned. "You were watching...?" he asked.

"Well I..." she said and turned her head away, blushing a little, but she threw him a seductive look under her elongated eyelashes.

Serafid soundly slapped his own face.

She turned to him in surprise. "Why did you do that?!" she asked in 'her' fake saccharine voice.

"Nothing. For a moment I confused reality with a dream," he said unemotionally. He started to massage his temples.

"Oh..." 'she' said, "Would you...like_ me _to do that for you?" she offered.

Serafid shot him a deadly look. "**No**_." _and then he added quickly, "Thank you, _Doris_," he forced out of his lips.

She then curled up some more in her seat and continued to converse, "So its been a while huh? I bet you're all excited to see your parents and how things changed around here... I mean come on! Its been what..? More than 15 years? I don't really know why you never came to visit....." 'she' kept on blabbering, competing with the buzzing of the machine above.

He stopped listening. _No, not a dream, more like a nightmare.._. he thought to himself. She would have looked like him at this point... Aside from the spy-surveillance images that he had acquired, this is as close as he could get to how she would realy look like now, if only her hair didn't change...

That's why he put up with him, excuse me, its 'her', or whatever, this transexual, even if it made his skin crawl inside.

And for a moment there, for a moment when he woke up, he thought he really was her...

His Dorothy... the one he'd lost... the one who's now a different person... _The one who's with his brother..._

He closed his eyes and tried to suppress the rising anger that he was beginning to feel.

Then his anger killed something, the buzzing noise overhead started to slow down.

"What the...?" Serafid asked, opening his eyes and looking up in alarm.

"What's going on?!" Doris asked, as she systematically went to the pilot's side and grabbed him.

The pilot slowly turned to the both of them, his eyes reflected fear. "Ma'am, Sir... I'm afraid we have a problem..."

¿¿ ??

Waves w a v e s w a v e

There was a gentle almost whispering sound that filled his ears. He listened to it for a while, its constancy, its soothing calmness. And then he opened his eyes.

He waited for his sight to focus and for his sense to come back to him. It didn't take long. He was still alive and he was onshore.

He got up and ripped away his bright orange lifesaver. He turned to one side to see Doris still unconcious, his wig had fallen out of his head. His mouth was open as if inviting mouth-to-mouth resucitation.

He suppressed an urge to throw up, it would be ungentlemanly, he reminded himself. He muttered another derogatory comment and got up, not even bother to check up if 'she' was alright.

He brushed the sand all over his clothes and looked about the place. He frowned and then started to walk away.

He hadn't gotten far when he heard Doris yell, "Wherever you're going, I'm going with you!" suddenly coming to life.

He had pulled his act together and appeared 'normal' once again, save for the misarranged wig on top of his head.

"No!" he said quickly, turning to point his index finger at him. "You _stay_." he commanded as a master does to its dog. "Its too dangerous if we go together. I fear for myself," he added as he said the last sentence under his breath. "I won't wander far off,"

"B-b-b-but Seeeraaaffiiiiiddd," he pleaded. "I don't want to be left alone, by myself, what if there are wild animals?" he exclaimed in his fake voice.

"Then good riddance. If you see a beast, go jump into its arms, they're as close as you could get to a loving embrace," he bit his lip. He couldn't help himself.

"_Whaaaat?!_" Doris asked, then turned to follow him. But he had already turned behind some thick tall bushes and was quickly out of her sight. She slumped to the sand. "So cold... always so cold to me... Ahhh... that's why... that's why I turned away... Oh Serafid if you only knew..." (play drama music here) She lifted up her sparkly eyes to the sky, "The truth is.... well the truth is that you were my first... love... yes, see I laid eyes on you first... and then I was captivated..." she raised her enclasped hand, as if to reach for something. "But you were always so cold... so far, your heart was _so_ far.. oh and how I longed to _warm_ you!! SE-RA-FID!!!!" she screamed, throwing both her arms into the air as if to embrace someone.

"But..." she said, looking down to the ground and gently bringing her arms with it. "Our love cannot be... you were engaged to my sister, and I love her so! That's why..." she paused and looked down. "I had turned to your brother who I worship with every fibre of my being still!!" she threw her arms out again. (halt drama music)

"But you will always have a place in my heart... my love... my first... Serafid... _Ohhhhh!_" she said as she got up to her feet. "And now that we have a chance to be together again I shall take it! I will find you my love! My _first_ love! This island is small, _I arranged it to be so_... hohohohohohoho! And we shall return to the civilized world only after you've accepted me as your wife..... _forever!!" _then she laughed once again. "After all, if I can't have Seravi you're as good as him! Wait, even better! **Hohohohohohoho!!**" and with that, she jumped through the bushes and began her hunt.

Right after he was concealed by the bushes, Serafid started running for his life. At first he tried to use magic to get out of this place but the island seemed to have an anti-magic field. So he went as far away from Doris as possible and ended up on the other side of the island where there was another beach. He sat down for a while and watched the sun slowly sinking in the horizon. First time he comes back after so many years to his homeland and what does he get? A transexual for a welcoming party and the great outdoors for accomodations. He shook his head. He wouldn't have minded it if it was spent with someone else but...

Serafid frowned. He stopped himself from going down that road again... thinking about her once again... after so many years...

He got up. A chill was starting to creep up to his hands. Doris must be getting close, he thought. Its getting dark, he needs to build a fire for the night. So he walked further down to beach and started to pick up driftwoods.

He had covered a lot of shoreline and the sun was almost lost from view when something glittered against the whiteness of the beach further up ahead.

He cautiously walked towards it.

There was something that the water had just brought in on shore. Long, golden hair was laced with seaweed.

Serafid dropped all that he was holding. He ran to the person who was wearing tattered remains of what once used to be a simple violet dress. He caught the person in his arms and slowly removed the hair from her face.

¿¿ ??

It was pitch black, a calm without a color. There was a sound that came slowly, gently, calling her back.

breathe

And then she began to feel. There was a spreading cold around her body, she felt it within. A rush of cold inside.

Please! Breathe!

The cold was all around her, it clung to her skin. The sound became clearer and clearer now. She opened her eyes.

The darkness was replaced by sudden explosion of white. The combination of colors danced in her eyes. She felt a warm hand gently brush away a tufts of blond hair that clung to her wet skin.

The colors converged to form images. She saw her beloved looking deeply in her eyes.

S-Serafid... she murmured.

He smiled. _Wake up..._

What was that?

"Dorothy?" another voice called out.

Dorothy sat up and opened her eyes, coughing up water. When she lifted her eyes again, there were only white shore and blue waters as far as the eyes can see. She looked down on her wet wedding gown and frowned. Memories of what happened came rushing back to her.

She closed her eyes and suppressed a tear. "Seravi... its you isn't it?" she asked without turning to look back.

"Yes," he said. He got up and dusted the sand from his robe. "I don't know why we ended up here, but we might as well make the most out of it, I'll go look for a source of clean water and a nice place to build a shelter. This island isn't very big, but its still pretty easy to get lost in the thick jungle here. So..." Seravi trailed off, and then carefully looked at Dorothy who was staring off into the distance.

"Please stay here, I'll come back as soon as I can," after a pause, he turned to go.

"I want to go back Seravi," Dorothy said in a calm voice.

"No." Seravi said firmly. He paused and then turned back to her with a smile on his face, "My dearest Dorothy you have lost your memory, I want them to return," he walked back to her and sat down beside her. "And when it does, then we'll come back," he said as he took Dorothy's hands, "And everything would be just as it should be..." He looked at her with clear eyes, searched for true self within, then when he found something that he had searched for in eyes, he leaned in and kissed her.

¿¿ ??

beep beep beep

A white large bed.

There was only whiteness in the room, an illusion of immaculateness, of heaven.

Light was reflected everywhere... everywhere... only one color was there

g ...reen... h....a....i.....

There was a bed in the middle of the room, surrounded by a lot of machines that that was connected to the someone lying on the bed.

beep beep beep

The low humming sound of the heart monitor was the only one that disturbed the almost tangible silence in the room.

Then ever so often, you would even be able to hear the dextrose drops onto the tube that's injected directly to a vein in his body.

The blanket on the bed moved in time with the slow rising and falling of the patient's chest. A breathing apparatus covered most of his drained, pale face.

He was as still as death, as silent as death, and as peaceful as death. He had been like that for a while now.

He will be like that for a long time.

¿¿ ??

On one side of the room was a mirror, and from that stood Serafid's father. There were dark circles under his eyes, it seemed to take a lot of effort just for him to remain standing there.

This was the greatest test of his life, his wife had an attack and was on another room in this hospital that they owned, his first-born was in a coma and his other son had disappeared.

But he maintained sanity and chose to bear it all up and not give up.

An elderly man dressed in white approached him slowly.

"You must rest yourself," he advised him.

He didn't even look at the doctor. "How is he?" he asked urgently.

"I'm pleased to say that his condition is already stable, his breathing; normal, heart rate; normal, I think we can already remove most of the life-support soon," he reported in a light tone. "But we can't tell if and when he would wake up..." he continued on.

Serafid's father continued listening patiently to the other technical details of his son's condition. His arms were crossed in front of his chest closely, his head was lightly bowed and every now and then he looked at Serafid.

"...there is one unusual result out of the tests that I ran on him earlier..." the Doctor said, continuing their conversation.

"What is it?" he asked, his eyes focusing on the Doctor.

"It seems that his brain wave patterns are irregular..."

"Irregular...? What do you... mean...?" he frowned and turned to him. "Are you saying that he sustained brain damage?!"

"No. Well, we cannot verify that until he wakes up."

"Then, what is it...?" he asked in a barely audible voice.

"His brain activity is similar to that of a person in deep sleep, one who's, well this may sound absurd, but, a person who's...dreaming," the Doctor answered in an faltering voice.

Their eyes wandered back to Serafid whose position hasn't changed.

"I see. He's... searching for something..." Serafid's father said outloud as he gazed into peaceful face of his son.

"Probably, yes,"

"All we can do is wait... until maybe, when he finds her... once again,"

¿¿ ??

(¿2?)

"I found the exit!" Serafid bellowed. He was small again. His hair was still cut straight across his forehead. He was standing on the other side of the lawn where the exit had led him to. "_Seravi?!_ Do you hear me? Call out if you do!"

He heard a faint, "_I'm coming brother!_" from inside the hedgemaze. He sounded quite far off. He smiled a bit. A part of him was glad that his brother was coming with him. At least he won't be alone.

And he was glad, very, very, _very_ glad, that he's not going to get married anytime soon.

He sat down and stretched out his hand and laid back on the grass. He stared at the bright blue sky and the clouds above. It was a beautiful day to run-away.

He closed his eyes and waited for his brother. He went through the plan in his mind again, he'd get out of here first, then go to the nearest town, get some supplies, go to the next town, and the next town after, until they get out of the kingdom and "disappear". Perhaps to reappear again to the place where he wanted to go.

"Crete..." he murmured dreamily.

What? a soft voice asked him

"Crete. The island where I want to go..." he answered half-dreamily.

I see... that's on the other side of the world... An island in the Medittareanean... off the coast of Greece...

"That's right, how did you know...?" he asked to the voice in his head.

"Because... that's where I planned to go too," the voice said, gaining clarity and concreteness. The voice wasn't in his head.

He opened his eyes.

Above him was another person, blocking the sun with her figure, placing herself in shadow.

He scampered to get up. Her image came into place.

The first thing he noticed was her blonde hair, gold-colored, soft as silk, bright as the sun, curled on the edges and topped off with a large red ribbon. Her eyes were mettalic gray, clear and focused on him. Her skin was fair and slightly freckled on the lighter parts. She was wearing a creme-colored cloth with lace-collars and loose long-sleeves and wide-bottom dress that covered up almost all of her body, save for her face and hands. She was carrying a large brown bag on her back that was more than half of her height. She was... over-all effect was... (details of her face were visible, but he couldn't remember how she really looked like)

Serafid gulped.

"Who are you?!" he demanded, his defenses kicking in after a minutes of staring dumbfoundedly at her.

"Brother, I'm here!" Seravi cried out as he came out from the hedgemaze and hugged him.

"Oh so you're related?" the girl asked sarcastically, looking at the two boys who almost exactly looked like each other.

"Umm, umm, I saw her inside the hedgemaze!" Seravi said looking back and forth from Dorothy and Serafid, "She's runn---owww!!!" Seravi said as Dorothy pulled his ear to silence him.

"What are you doing to my brother?" Serafid asked, pulling Seravi away from her and placing him behind his body. Dorothy backed away and Serafid turned around to Seravi and checked him.

"Are you hurt?" he asked as he examined his ear closely.

"A little..." Seravi answered honestly.

"That doesn't look so good. Your left ear is all red. Let's make it fair," Serafid said as he pulled on the other ear as well.

"Brother!! _Owww!!!" _Seravi said as Serafid pulled his ear.

"That's what you get for following me, and also for talking with strangers! Did you forget the first rule in being a child?! You must never talk to strangers, much less go with one! Don't be fooled by her beauty brother! Girls are _evil_!" he scolded.

"Well excuse me!" Dorothy piped in, putting her arms on her waists and scowling. "I'm not some gardener's descendant! Who do you think you are?! I don't need this!" she exclaimed then started to walk off.

"_W-wait!_" Seravi called out. "Y-you're running away too aren't you? We're running away too see? So I, I think it would be better if we went together!" he declared.

Serafid turned to her. He stared at her for a while, she stared back at him, never blinking. He looked briefly at Seravi then turned back to her. He ran his eyes from her head to foot. _Something..._

"Brother, please!!" Seravi pleaded with him. "She's not evil..."

__

Serafid frowned, he turned his head on one corner and thought deeply.

"**_Don't bother!_**" she said as she continued walking away.

"Brother...! _She's getting away!_" Seravi cried out, pulling Serafid's arm and pleaded with him.

Impulsively, Serafid cried out the first words that came to his head, "_Crete!_"

The girl stopped walking.

"What did you say?" she asked, slightly turning her head into his direction.

"Crete," he said more calmly. "I was not lying. I'm heading there."

She turned around and looked at him.

There was a set passion in his green eyes.

She looked at her for a long time, then her eyes softened "Then, I suppose..."

"We'll go.....together," he finished for her. "What is your name?" he asked.

He saw her open her mouth, but instead of the words coming out, it was darkness, and it enveloped the memory and dropped away.

¿¿ ??

A pair of eyes opened, the dark spot contracted, giving way to the grey metallic color around it.

She was sitting down on the white sands of a beach. Her golden hair was making its own waves, going with the wind. "I'm Dorothy..." she bade to the wind.

She was wearing her old purple clothes as per Seravi's request.

"But who's Dorothy?" Her eyes were sad, her mind, wandering. "Whose thoughts are these...?"

Everything then faded to a single voice.

I wrote many letters once, and I sent them all to one boy.

I used to write many pages about everything. And then he would reply to me, usually with twice the page number that I had written to him originally. It was a letter-war, we liked competing with each other. We were young then.

He kept all the letters. But I... I had lost mine. I think I kept them for as long as I could... He said it wasn't my fault, that I could no longer read those letters... that I could no longer remember them...

He let me read all of the letters that I had sent to him. He had kept them all, his true world's treasure. Millions upon millions of letters and associations. Without a doubt, I had loved him then.

One morning too soon, I woke up to a room full of letters. He had tried to rewrite all of the letters he had ever given to me. Thousands upon thousands of pages. One of them stood out most from the rest, not in words, not paper, nor in handwriting. It had said:

Would you come with me to Crete... as my wife?

A tear escaped her eyes.

"Dorothy, there you are!" a male voice called out from behind her. She immediately wiped the tear away and turned her head to the one who spoke.

"Dinner's ready, come to the cottage or you'll catch a cold," he said, rubbing his arms and then he smiled. He was standing right beside her then, he offered his hand to help her up.

She looked up at his gentle, smiling eyes, and with a lot of hesitation, she took his hand, got up to her feet and let him lead the way.

Dorothy entered a replica of the cottage that Seravi owned back in the kingdom. An old picture of her as a child was hanging in the wall, forever frozen in a smile. She walked in and approached the roundtable where a crystal ball was placed in the center. Dorothy touched the crystal ball and it responded by emanating a weak light.

"Funny that you noticed that first, let me show you something," Seravi said as he went on the other side of the table.

"Show me Dorothy!" he commanded.

It blinked for a moment and showed her current state for a split-second.

"Show me the blond Dorothy!" he said. And then it blinked and she saw herself in the crystal ball.

"It won't show you if you just call out your name, see the crystal ball looks for the caller's mind picture of the person being searched for, and usually, the Dorothy that is in mind is the pink-haired Dorothy, that's why I didn't find you when you were missing, I was looking for the wrong one," Seravi explained to her. His eyes were shining.

Dorothy looked at him once, and then lowered her eyes on the floor.

"Well! Sit down there and I'll bring out the food," Seravi said as he trotted away humming.

¿¿ ??

Back in the world they left behind, Cha-cha, Shiine, and Riya were seated at the roundtable. Their heads bowed down, eyes closed and had solemn looks in their faces. Silence was everywhere.

Every now and then Riya would peek through and look at the other two, his brows knotted in confusion.

After his 500th peek, Riya's eyes closed in resignation. "Guys..." he said in serious tone.

Shiine and Cha-cha opened their eyes and looked at him curiously.

"...what are we doing again?" he asked in the same tone.

Cha-cha slumped to the table while Shiine took his chair and threw it at Riya's face.

"_What's the matter with you??_ Have you forgotten already? We're waiting for them to come back, that's what!" Shiine said after the chair made its impact in Riya's face. He had his back on Riya and was clenching his fists.

Riya took the table and threw it at the unsuspecting Shiine. He kissed the wall once again. "Well maybe I wouldn't have forgotten it if you gave us something to eat!!"

"Oh yeah _doggie?_ You think that feeding can increase your cognitive skills?" Shiine said as he recovered and faced Riya, posing to materialize a hand mallet.

"_What?!_ I'm not a dog!!" Riya yelled back.

"Stop it guys, please don't argue!" Cha-cha pleaded with them. "Teacher Seravi and Miss Dorothy might come back any minute and see you two like this..." she said.

The two boys relaxed their fighting stance.

"Or they may never..." Shiine said in resignation.

"How could you say that Shiine?! Are you saying that they could be..." Cha-cha objected.

"Think about it Cha-cha! How many shots did Doris fire? Serafid only took one shot and he's critical... What if they didn't get out of the way on time? What if they're somewhere out there, wounded, dying slowly, too weak to teleport back..." Shiine said tears pooling in his eyes. One drop fell down, followed by another... until he turned his back to them and began his silent sobbing.

There was a long silence.

Then Cha-cha spoke, "Won't you have faith in them Shiine?" she said in a calm tone. "If there's one thing that you could have learned from Miss Dorothy... its never to give up, even if the day seemed like night in the hopelessness of the situation... never give up. Have hope. Have faith. Its what she would have done. And then Teacher Seravi, would have said something like, they might just knock any minute and come right through that d--"

At that moment, they heard a faint knocking on the door.

Everybody held their breath and slowly turned their towards where the noise was coming from.

"C...could it be?" Cha-cha said.

"There's only one way to find out!" Riya declared as he marched up front and slowly opened the door.

The setting sun came directly to their eyes. The three of them peeked out, squinting at first, trying to adjust their sight. Riya was in center, Shiine and Cha-cha was on his either sides.

They brought their eyes down to see the one who knocked. There was a large black wolf that was at their doorstep. It had thick unruly fur that covered his body in black save for its red-orangish eyes.

"Aaaah! I know you!" Shiine exclaimed as he recognized the wolf that almost gave him a heart attack. "You're the wolf that tried to eat me!!!" he said as he jumped back into the house, clutching his heart.

The wolf shook his head, "I would do no such thing... I came here to... atone..." the wolf said in a deep rusty voice.

"Atone?! What? Stone?? _Hah!_" Riya exclaimed, then he turned back to his companions, "What does that word mean? Huh? Hey Shiine!" Riya said, tensing up for his fighting stance.

"I intend to..." he paused and shook his head. He looked back at the horizon behind him and then turned back to them. "I ask you to just wait a while longer..." behind him, the sun was almost out of sight.

"He might be planning something! Its dangerous you guys, close the door! He's going to eat us!!!!" Shiine cried out.

"Calm down Shiine!" Cha-cha advised him. "I think I remember him too. You had fainted then, when Teacher Seravi came and confronted this wolf... One look at Teacher Seravi and he ran away..."

"That is correct... When I saw Seravi I--_uhhh_," he stopped speaking. Something moved underneath his skin.

"Something's happening!" Riya exclaimed.

He groaned and twitched as if in a lot of pain. His shape started to wiggle as he struggled to pin down a form.

"Somebody do something!" Cha-cha exclaimed. They faced each other and started to argue.

"What do you want me to do?" Shiine asked her.

"Get... some... aspirin?" Riya suggested.

"No wait!" Shiine said. "I think I understand now, he's a werewolf!" He said then turned back to the shape-shifting animal.

"Correct young one," the werewolf had said. Now standing in place of the wolf before them was a handsome young man with raven black hair up to his chest and orangish eyes. He was dressed in a dark robe and stood slightly taller than Seravi.

"My name is Inos, I come from a family of werewolves, wolf by day, human by night," he paused and looked at them. "May I come in?"

"What do you want with us?" Cha-cha asked.

"As I had said earlier, I came here to atone... and to tell what I know of what happened to Dorothy..."

Cha-cha looked at the two boys, silently asking them what to do. They stared back at her dumbfounded, not knowing what to say. She looked back at him, and, since sensing no evil, started to go inside and make room for him.

¿¿ ??

On Seravi's new cottage, a great feast was laid out in the table. They were mostly culinary delights that were made from the fish that Seravi had caught earlier, and some wild plants that he had gathered around the place.

Despite the mouth-watering display, Dorothy couldn't bring herself to touch any of the food in front of her.

"What's the matter? Aren't you hungry?" Seravi asked carefully, pausing from his silent eating.

"I-I'm sorry, I just don't have the will to eat," she said almost silently.

"I see..." he said simply and looked down. "Would you be more comfortable if I leave you alone to eat?" he asked gently.

"Its not that..." Dorothy said in a faltering voice. "I... I would like to go back Seravi..."

Seravi gently brought down his bowl.

"I would like to know how my hus-," she stopped herself as she saw Seravi's wince. "How Serafid, is doing," she asked politely, a slight crease forming between her brows.

"Please eat your food, I prepared it just for you. Please eat it, I don't want you to get sick," he as if not hearing what Dorothy had just said.

Dorothy lowered her eyes. "I would like to go back," she pleaded once again.

There was a moment of silence.

"Not yet, Dorothy," he answered in resignation.

"Then when...? How long do you intend to keep me here?" she asked in a subdued voice, frowning visibly now.

"As long as it takes," he said looking at her eyes directly. "As long as it takes for your memory to come back. I want you to remember me, Dorothy. And I want you to remember who you are. How can we go back if you don't even know who I am?"

"_It's you who don't know who I am!_" she said intensely. Tears were at the edge of her eyes, she gripped the edge of the table in an effort to calm down. "You speak of memories," she said in a softer tone, "but what of them? You don't know what I want, Seravi, _no_, you _don't _know how _I_ feel. Why are you imposing yourself on me? Why do you think that you have a right to me?!"

The question was left resounding on the table. Even the night creatures outside fell silent in anticipation of the answer.

¿¿ ??

They were seated around the roundtable. Inos closed his eyes, and then began to tell his story.

"I have known Dorothy and Seravi from way back to our days at the Urara school of magic. Dorothy always had my interest ever since I first saw her. I could never get close to her because Seravi was always hanging around her, like a little lost slave fawning about the beauty of her golden hair and I... I'd have none of that," he declard with a wave of his hand.

Shiine was listened closely, while Cha-cha and Riya blinked blankly.

"I was always a wolf by day, and so made not so many friends. But she was one who looked past physical appearances and had made an effort to befriend me. I knew of her intention, she wanted to use me to fend Seravi away, but I was alright with that, I never did like much that regal fool," then he dismissed the thought and proceeded into telling what happened next.

"One day she stopped going to school. I was very sad for a while, and tried to visit her house but they would not let me because of my...apperance. After a while, my family also pulled me out of school to bring me to our ancestral land. I could not do anything else but to assent to their wishes. And so on the day that I was to leave, I was walking by the port, saying goodbye to this land where I was born and to the memories I had here, when I saw her again. She had changed greatly over the short period of time that we spent apart. She had a differently colored hair then, what color do you call it?"

"Pink. Does this story lead anywhere?" Riya asked unabashedly.

"Of course it does. Shut up young wolf, or else I'll tell your grandfather how rude you are,"

"You know my grandfather?" Riya asked, ears perking up.

"It gravely pains me in my heart to acknowledge the fact that we're related,"

"Wow! So we're related huh? huh? That's so cool, I've never met any other family aside from my brothers and my grandfather and...."

"Would you stop this and let me continue with my story?" he cut short.

"Sure, yeah, but you're going to be telling me other stories later... heh!"

"Alright," he said, dismissing it. "As I had said, she had _pink_ hair then..." he shuddered as if dreading the word. "And I found her more beautiful than when she had that sunny hair... it was more... attractive see... it approaches the color of blood..." he raised an eyebrow.

Shiine made an effort to inch away from him.

"So... I approached her... She was walking around the port looking for a ship that was bound to Europe. She was determined to get a ride through whatever means, she had found one ship that was going to sail out in the night, but the captain was old-fashioned and wouldn't have a woman go on board. I caught her attempting to sneak into the cargo hold.. she almost fell to the sea had I not caught her by her skirt and pulled her back into the ground," he frowned at the memory.

"We talked then, it was the last time that we would talk in a long time. She had said something about someone meeting her in a place somewhere, though she refused to disclose any information further than that. When I asked her if she had confirmed with this person where exactly to meet, she couldn't reply to me. Apparently, she hadn't received a word in months from the person who she sent the letter to, fearing the worse, of being disconnected to her once and for all, of her unforeseen fate in a foreign land, I urged her to stay here and wait for a message from the one who she was supposed to meet,"

"And I suppose one thing led to the other and she was never really able to leave after that. Years later she told me of you, her young student. Shiine, you were a big reason why she had stayed behind instead of leaving this land,"

Shiine lowered his eyes. He had no idea that he had been so influential in his teacher's life. "So that was the last time that you saw Miss Dorothy?" he asked.

"No, it was not the last time that I saw her. I recently came back after years of being in my ancestral land learning ancient werewolf magic. I first sought her the moment I stepped off the ship. She had told me years ago that she had built a palace in Urizuri mountain, but when I went there and no one was home. Walking around the place, waiting for the sun to set I picked up her trail around the forest, I followed it until I found her wounded at the place where you had thought was her grave..."

[flashback, that afternoon in Chapter 1]

Dorothy was bleeding, sitting on the rock and resting her aggravated heeled feet. She was dangerously close to the edge. She had half-taken off her heels and was pulling back her skirt to inspect the wound that was done to her legs by the spiny bush that she had passed through earlier.

The cut was deep and dark red blood was oozing out of the wound. She tore off a part of her skirt and wrapped it around the cut. All the while, she was lamenting.

"Ohh, why is everything wrong in this day?" she asked outloud, almost to the verge of tears.

It was more of her cries, than her scent that had lead Inos to locate her finally.

"Everytime I visit that cottage, I come out with twice the amount of psychological damage than I had before, and yet I keep on coming back to that... that... insane dimwit!!" another rip was heard as she pulled and tore at her own dress.

"Oh, where is my wand? I must have dropped it along the way... Man, stress, stress, everytime, that, that _pathetic _excuse for a man always does this to me. Why can't he grow up?!?! Argh! Does he have an inexhaustible source for insanity?! Is this punishment for indecision?! How can I escape this tragic fate?! I want to _escaaaaaapee!!!_" and then she screamed and screamed incomprehensible worlds to let out her fury for him. All the birds took flight from the forest.

"I hate you _Seeeraaaaviiiii!!!_" she screamed with the sea gulls taking flight.

After screaming continously, Dorothy took a deep breath. "That felt good, works everytime but always in a lesser and lesser degree..." then she paused for a while and then continued sobbing. "Ohh, why is my life like this? Why is it so cruel to me? What have I done to deserve this? _Uh-huhuhuhuhuhuh..._" she lamented.

Inos, who had been hiding in the bushes, decided that it was time to come forward.

There was some rumbling in the bushes, Dorothy turned to the source of the sound, "Who... who's there?" she asked bewildered.

Inos came out into the clearing. A big black wolf with reddish eyes. The sun's last rays amplified its eye's color, now it seemed as if it was burning with a demonic flame.

Dorothy let out a scream and fell back from the rock, one of her shoes falling loose.

"Dorothy its me," he said in his deep voice.

Dorothy struggled to get up. "W-w-wha-what? How do you know my name? And how can you speak?"

Inos tried to approach her, and Dorothy crawled backwards in time with his steps.

"Its Inos, how could you forget me?" he had said.

"Oh Inos!" she had said, then fumbled to get up on one shoed foot. "I didn't realize it was y--ohhhh!" she said as she placed the heeled foot into a rock that eroded down to the ocean below.

¿¿ ??

Seravi sat there stunned. "But I love you Dorothy..." he had said silently, almost inaudibly. He had cast his eyes down.

"I may not have been clear about it, in fact my way of showing affection to you drove you to the edge time and time again..." he winced, as his own tears made its way up to his eyes.

"You used to have pink hair. _I hated it_. I hated it so much because its a constant reminder for me of how I faltered, of how I had damaged the very beauty I tried to protect. Of how I _failed_... I never failed before Dorothy... And now I failed with the only thing that truly meant something to me..." he lifted his eyes and looked at her. One tear drop after another ran down his face.

"Liar. The only thing that you loved about me was my blond hair,"

"_That's not true Dorothy!_" he paused, clenching his hands. When he found his voice, he spoke again, "I would rather have you with pink hair, rather than you being blond and belonging to someone else, even if it is my own brother..." he choked on his last words.

¿¿ ??

"Dorothy!" Inos cried out and bit what he could to hold her. Still, she fell back-first at the edge of the cliff. But then a pull reassured him of his grip, he opened his eyes to see that he had bitten Dorothy's skirt, but Dorothy herself had already fallen down the cliff.

He heard her pathetically crying once again. "What cruel fate allows this to happen to me?" there was tugging at the cloth as hands struggled to keep the sheet from suffocating her face. Her grip found a stable spot, she hung on.

"Uurrmmmhphyy?" Inos called out between gritted teeth. He can't see her directly, but the weight of the thing that hanged from his mouth was no doubt the weight of the person.

"Don't look, please, don't you dare look down here and see me at my disgrace. Oh _uh-huhuhuhuhuhuh_," she wailed. "Why do you have to bite at my skirt of all places? Now I'm exposed... oh _huhuhuhuhuh_, its cold,"

"Hmphhhnnn," Inos said as he tried to pull the cloth up. There was a resounding _rrrrrrriiiiiiiiiippppppp_ the broke the silence. Dorothy screamed a little then resumed to laughing.

"Urrmmhhhphhyyyy!" Inos cried out to her, wanting to ask her if she was alright. His eyes looked around for some form of stable anchor, but there was none, the rock that she was sitting on earlier seemed so far away.

Dorothy's laughter turned into sobs. "I can't take it anymore... Really... my life is a joke..." she said as one after another drops wet her violet clothing. "And here comes my death, but life doesn't even give me a fair departure. Maybe this is a fitting end, headline tomorrow : Woman Dies Suffocated by Own Skirt as She Dangles in a Cliff for Her Life," she burst out crying once again. "Well I won't let them have that satisfaction!" she resolved. She brought her tear-brimmed eyes up to look at Inos, even though she couldn't see him, she knew that he was fighting hard not to let her go, racking his mind as to how to lift her up there, but she's made up her mind, she'd have none of that. "Inos... I thank you for the friendship that you've given to me... Please tell Shiine to be brave... And to Seravi that I hate his guts, and to Serafid that I... I'm sorry..."

"Unnhffffff," Inos let out a closed-teeth growl, he shook his head and started pulling. Tears brimmed in his eyes.

"No, see stop," Dorothy said as she felt his tug again. "I'm tired of all of this, pretend that you never saw me today ok?"

Inos growled once again, louder this time. He pulled harder, and harder, blood dripped out of his mouth.

"Please stop it!" Dorothy commanded. "I know Inos, I know that you have things left unsaid to me... I know, you don't have to say them outloud. I've always known. I ask you now, please, if you love me... _let me go_..."

¿¿ ??

"Dorothy..." Seravi said, as he continued to tear. He tried to meet her eyes but she looked away, he frowned turned his head to the side. The last of his resolutions left him as he stood up from his seat, went around the table to her. She got up and backed away from him, but Seravi went on ahead and engulfed her in a tight embrace.

Dorothy tried to push him away, "Let me go... _Let me **go**, Seravi!_" she said as she tried to get away from his clasp.

"_No!_" he said as he held her more tightly, wanting to calm her down, wanting her to let his warmth take her... Let him take her...

¿¿ ??

"I said _let me go!_ Inos! Stop this..." she cried out to him. "Don't you understand? I want to die! I want to end everything! _I want to die!_"

The sun set from the horizon, the crawling under his skin began, his skin twitched. '**NO!**' he screamed inside his mind. If he were to transform now he would loose his grip on her skirt. '_No!!_'

He broke the silence as he let out suppressed wails of fury as his transformation began. He bit down as hard as he could to the piece of cloth that held her.

After a while of silence, Dorothy said in a calm voice, "You're transforming aren't you? Its such a shame Inos, that I never saw you in your human form... You must be very good-looking..." On the ground, Inos fought the insane pain that was now squeezing his brain. He was almost a human now, most parts of his body were losing its fur. "But its alright... Inos... I go in peace... Don't worry now, this will be your declaration of love that I accept..." his jaw was now turning into a human's... "Inos please also tell Serafid..." Dorothy said hurriedly, panic now setting in her heart, "that I will be with him in the next life," she said finally.

And then she pulled the cloth, his jaw gave way and Dorothy plummeted down without a scream into the waves below.

¿¿ ??

"Dorothy..." Seravi said as he stroked her blond hair. Dorothy had broken down into silent sobs in his arms. He looked at her blond hair for the last time.

"I almost lost you once... but I'll never let that happen again. I won't let you die, never while I'm still alive. I'll never let you go... never again..." he hushed. Then he slowly eased his grip and looked into her face.

Dorothy looked at him with tear-stricken face, her blonde locks were gone, replaced by the old pink ones. She looked at her side, "M-my hair?" she croaked.

"Everything just as it should be..." he said as he leaned in and kissed her. And then for the first time, she did not turn away.

¿¿ ??

Shiine sat there silent. Cha-cha and Riya had woken up somewhere in the middle and was able to hear the tragic tale.

"Dorothy..." Riya said. "I guess Seravi drove her up the wall once and for all..."

"Its my fault..." Inos said weakly.

"No its not your fault Mr. Inos!" Cha-cha replied immediately. "You had no control over the events, you're not to blame!"

After the comment had been made, silence returned once again.

Then Shiine spoke. "She got her wish," he said plainly.

"What?" they asked, turning to him.

"She wanted to be with Serafid on her next life, and this was it, her second shot... We never should have gone to their mansion and intervened..."

"Shiine..." Cha-cha said.

"We had no right to be in the way of her happiness! And now, because of our meddling, she's unhappy again, the two of them are parted... She's confused once again... we had to ruin it for her..." Shiine said and then burst into tears.

And then silently, the rest of them also wept, in atonement, in pity, in guilt, and in love.

¿¿ ??

(¿3?)

"Serafid! A letter for you!" a voice called out. Serafid was going down the stairs in his emerald green robe and his friend was waving a small white envelop on the landing. "Ooooh, its from your girlfriend, oh excuse me, _fiancee_ again!" he teased as Serafid acknowledged his voice.

"Give me that!" he ordered as he hastened his descent. "How do you know its from her?" he asked as he took it.

"Because it came from the same address silly!" he said and then patted him on the back. "Invite me on your wedding ok? And if she has a sister, you have to introduce me!"

"Oh believe me, you don't want to meet her 'sister'," he said and waved at his friend as he darted across the hall and out of his sight.

Serafid smiled as he read the words written in the envelope. Its from her mansion alright, still smiling, he held the letter close to his heart and ascended the stairwell into his room.

He immediately headed to his desk after opening the door and fished out his letter opener. There, in all neatness, he sliced open the top of the envelop and gently pulled out the letter inside. It was a thin letter, he frowned.

He read the few lines that were neatly embedded into the letter.

Dearest Serafid,

We regret to be the one to tell you that our only daughter has runaway. We have reason to believe that she has eloped with your brother.

We currently do not know of her whereabouts and since she did this out of her own will we have no intention of looking for her either.

We hope you understand.

The world trailed off... he fainted. But even in his sleep, he found no peace.

She's gone... and not a word, not a message for me?

He screamed out, WHERE ARE YOU?!

WHERE ARE YOU?!?!

and then in a much smaller voice

who are you.....?

who am......I?

And back in reality, the rhythmic beeping of his heart monitor suddenly became monotonous.

¿¿ ??

Where are you?

Who are you?

I am

Dorothy.

And this is the truth.

Dear Seravi,

The truth is, I had loved you too.

Because you were there and he wasn't

because your presence had filled his absence.

And that was the true reason why I ran away then...

because if I had stayed there much longer, I would have completely fallen for you.. there would be no more turning back.

But then you followed me,

you continued to love me... even from a distance.

Even when you say that you hated me for what I had done to myself, for choosing my path of life away from you... For choosing to only be normal with you.. for choosing to hate you...

and you hating me back... you blaming me, I blaming you, we were loving each other but was too afraid.

Too afraid of our own feelings.. our conflicting feelings.... our love for Serafid, our love for each other...

And we couldn't get past this hurdle. We continued our parade of violence, our way of showing affection for each other... for so long, so constantly that I began to doubt, if you had ever truly loved me and if I had only been kidding myself of your feelings for me... my feelings for you...

and what could have been... what could have been my life if only you two weren't brothers... if I had only known Serafid, if I could only come back to him... if I hadn't let go.. if he would only come...

So I wanted to die. I ripped my skirt and chose to fall down to the cliffs below. I thought I had died. I thought I had ended it all. But I opened my eyes once again, and I saw you... I thought you had found me... I thought you hadn't given up, just as I had.

But it wasn't you, it was Serafid. The gods must have heard my dying wish then, because I lost my memories. So with my new life, I fell in love all over again with Serafid. He treated me as if none of it had ever happened, that our love was safe in time, that it was truly meant to be... and so it was my chance to forget, it was another chance in life... I took it.

I had chosen to die. And at my wish, I had forgotten it all.

Seravi... Serafid understood why I had dyed my hair, he even told me that, if I had wanted to I can dye it back to pink. But I felt no more need to pretend around him. He gave me back my memories, you know? All of them. On the night before our wedding, he told me everything. And so I knew that he truly loved me, nothing else mattered.

I had said once that I wanted to learn about Magic... but the truth was I wanted to learn about love. And it took two attempts to runaway to finally be able to understand it, and to learn that it was with me all along.

Now that I know what Love really is, now that I have received both your love and his, I think I can finally ascend to that higher level of Magic and finally be able to do what I want... to be free.

I write this letter now, because I don't want either of you to come after me. This is the end now...

So... goodbye... Seravi.

In the darkness of the room, a shadow rose and parted itself from the (one who was embracing). She floated silently to one corner of the room, and then, a weak light illuminated the shadow to be an angel, and then with a final flash of light she was gone.

¿¿ ??

There was a lady dressed in white, holding a rosary in her right hand who came inside Serafid's hospital room. It was almost dawn, but it was still night time in the room. She walked to the person lying in the bed and took his hand gently. Then she bowed her head as if to pray.

"Serafid, your condition now is the least of my sins to you," she began. "I came here... not to ask for your forgiveness.. but to give to you what was truly yours, one of my greatest sins in life," she paused as another presence was felt in the room. She didn't bother to turn, but she slowly took out of her pocket a wrinkled envelope, brown from its age and gently opened it.

"I held on to it, I'm sorry it took for so long. It was not meant for me, it was for you... from Dorothy, when she ran away for the first time. She gave me this letter to give to you, but I never did..." she opened the folds of the paper, and then began to speak.

Dear Serafid,

I am sorry but I cannot wait for you until you finish your studies to take me away from here. I'm leaving tonight.

She paused and eyed Serafid as if to assess whether he could hear it or not. She looked at the other pair of eyes in the room and found her reassurance. She went on, the heaviness started to lift as she began to read once again.

_Please don't think that I'm abandoning all that there is between us. Think of it as a preparation for our meeting again. I want to learn, Serafid, not of the things that they teach me, but something more than that! I can't quite describe it, but I am sure that the greatest magician in the world would be able to tell me what it is. I am planning to enter apprenticeship under him. It would take about 6 years, the same course of time that you would take with your current course. And then after we graduate, will you not meet me at the place that we have planned to go? As you have told me so many years ago..._

If I receive no response to this letter, I will assume that you do not agree with my plan and have chosen to forget me. I give you the choice Serafid. But know that whatever your decision is, I will wait for you there. I will never forget you.

She stopped reading the letter, and gently put it down.

(I love you)

Dorothy

Serafid stirred a little and slowly opened his eyes. He saw blurred pictures. There were two golden blurs that were on his right side.

"D-Dorothy...? She went where..?" he murmured weakly.

"_Shhh..._" the closest one beside him said. "Go back to sleep..." she gently stroked his hair. There was a plain gold band in her left ringfinger.

Serafid slowly closed his eyes, relaxed and fell asleep.

"Are you going to be alright?" the one who had read the letter asked the other presence in the room.

She drew a deep breath. And then nodded. "Yes... Long ago I hesitated and it cost me dearly. I will go before I change my mind," she turned and went to the corner southeast of the bed. She paused for a moment, then slightly turned her body to where the white-dressed lady was. "Goodbye..." she said gently. "I will never see you again,"

"Goodbye Sister... I love you... I'm sorry..." she bid.

"I love you too... brother..." and after she had said those words, there was a gentle flash of light, and then she was gone. She had left no mark whatsoever, as if she had never been there.

The white-dressed nun turned one last lingering look at the figure on the bed. Color has returned to his complexion, soon, she guessed, he will be up and running again, following the dream that she had given him. But she will not be a part of it anymore... She will live in peace from now on, far behind monastery walls, far from the world and its madness.

Then, the sun finally came, and all the darkness of the night faded away.

¿¿ end ??

Question : Will I post an epilogue or not?


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